Far Flung Hope: The Great War
by Bombsquad
Summary: It has begun...the Great War. There are two sides, one is the Sentient Coalition. The other, the Covenant Hegemony. This war shall be the largest the Universe shall ever see. Trilions shall fight and die, Galaxies shall be destroyed.
1. Prologue

Far Flung Hope: The Great War  
  
Prologue: How many lives?  
  
Sentient species have always heralded the last Great War as being the last horrific conflict that would ever occur. They always seemed to resolve that once this conflict is over, the memories of the last war would never again make warfare necessary.  
How wrong they always are...  
Some of the most destructive conflicts in all history were billed as being the last Great War. The American Civil war, 1861-1865, over 620,000 dead. The First World War, over 9 million died. The Second World War, 1939-1945, estimated at over 50 million dead. These were just over two hundred years on one planet created by the Forerunners researchers. Thousands of other worlds underwent wars and conflicts just as destructive as these, if not more so.  
The United States – Soviet War, 1945-1993, 152 Million dead.  
The Russian – European Union War, 1984-1983, 8 Million dead.  
The United States – United Kingdom War, 1862-1865, 2 Million dead.  
The United States of the Americas – African Hegemony War, 1999-2009, 9 Million dead.  
The United States – German War, 1944-1952, 102 Million dead.  
The English – French War, 1604-1664, 10 Million dead.  
The Orion-Antaran War, -1043 - -013, 103 Billion dead.  
The First Human Alliance – Antaran War, 042 – 253, 3 Billion dead.  
The Second Human Alliance – Antaran War, 334-609, 20 Billion dead.  
The Third Human Alliance – Antaran War, 610-1031, 31 Billion dead.  
The Fourth Human Alliance – Antaran War, 1031-3041, 23 Billion dead.  
The New Republic – Imperial Civil War, 3 BBY-30 ABY, 2 Billion dead.  
The Earth – Race War, 1942-1945, 34 Million dead.  
The Sentient Machine – Saurian Republic War, 099-134, 4 Billion dead.  
The Earth – Martian War, 1901-1902, 30,000 dead.  
The Earth – Goa'uld War, 1994-2004, 3 Million dead.  
The Japan – Sweden War, 1892-1903, 22 Million dead.  
The Federation – Klingon War, 2046-2132, 5 Million dead.  
The New Republic – Yuuhzan Vong War, 32 ABY-40 ABY, 22 Billion dead.  
  
Sentient peoples have always waged war. They will always continue to do so. But now a war is not being waged for profit or for gain. It is being waged to defend and protect a species, a way of existing. It promises to be the bloodiest, most violent war that any galaxy shall ever see.  
  
The Coalition - Covenant War, 2525 – and continuing, 122 Billion dead and rising. 


	2. Disclaimer and Explanations

Disclaimer, and the Peoples involved... Stuff I wanna get out of the way before It gets to deep.  
  
Disclaimer- I do not own any of the groups or Genres that are represented in this story. I cannot list all the groups that I do not own, because it would be a list of books going from JRR Tolken's Lord of the Rings, to Harry Turtledoves 'World War' Series. Including games listed from HALO to Civilization III. Movies including everything from 'Aliens' to 'Zulu'. Along with historical figures dating from Alexander the Great to General Patton. I'd also have to say I don't own any TV shows going from Stargate SG-1 to 'Sliders'. Also, I'd have to say that I don't own any Anime from 'Trigun' to 'Gundam Wing'.  
The Rule of thumb is that nothing that I'm using here is owned.  
Hence the fact that this is on FANFICTION .net. I don't own any of it. But if I did...wow...that would be soooo nice...  
I do own a few of the characters that I came up with on my own. But remember, I can't stress this enough, I DON'T OWN ANY OF THESE GROUPS. I really want to make that clear because copyright suits would tear me apart on this.

* * *

Peoples involved- These are who's here, who might be on what side, and where they came from.  
  
Sentient Coalition:

United Nations Star Command, UNSC – Halo

Federation- Star Trek

Klingon Star Empire – Star Trek

United States Colonial Marine Corps – Aliens

Human Alliance – Master of Orion 1, 2, and 3

SGC/United States – Stargate SG-1

Asguard – Stargate SG-1

Tollan – Stargate SG-1

Tok'ra – Stargate SG-1

X-Com – X-Com game series

The New Republic – Star Wars

The Empire –Star Wars

* * *

The Covenant Hegemony:

Covenant – Halo

The Goa'uld – SG-1

The Race – Harry Turtledoves 'World War' Series

Yuuhzan Vong – Star Wars

The Star Spawn – X-Com game series

Yevetha – Star Wars

Tau – Warhammer 40K

* * *

The Independents – Those who have not chosen a side yet:

The Reich – GURPS Alternate Earths

The United States - Harry Turtledoves 'World War' Series

The Reich - Harry Turtledoves 'World War' Series

The SSSR - Harry Turtledoves 'World War' Series

The Romulans – Star Trek

The Cardassians – Star Trek

The Imperium of Man – Warhammer 40K

The Chaos – Warhammer 40K

The Eldar – Warhammer 40K

Dark Eldar – Warhammer 40K

Necrons – Warhammer 40K Centurium – GURPS Alternate Earths

The United States (Yankees) – GURPS Alternate Earths

The Confederate States of America – GURPS Alternate Earths

The Orks – Warhammer 40K

The Terran Dominon – Starcraft

Protoss – Starcraft

The Earth Force Regulars – Gundam

The Krait – Gundam

Eden – Gundam

GDI – Command & Conquer, Tiberium Sun

NOD –Command & Conquer, Tiberium Sun

The Allies – Command & Conquer, Red Alert 1&2

The Russians – Command & Conquer, Red Alert 1&2

Yuri - Command & Conquer, Red Alert 1&2

The United States - Harry Turtledoves 'American Empire' Series

The Confederacy - Harry Turtledoves 'American Empire' Series

The Plysserians (Blues) – The Last World War

The Chodrecai (Grays) – The Last World War

Liberty - Freelancer

Bretonia - Freelancer

Rheinland - Freelancer

Kusari - Freelancer  
  
The Forerunner Alliance:

The Orions – Master of Orion 1, 2, and 3

The Airlia – Area 51 series

The Ancients – Stargate SG-1

The Antarans – Master of Orion 1, 2, and 3

The Yautja - Predator

* * *

There are more groups than I can truly list here. But consider everything that you could possibly post on FF.net as fan fiction to be fair game for what I'm writing. The list is endless, anyone and anything could be incorporated into this, and I might not make a very in depth description and synopsis of every one of the races listed above, but I'm definetly going to incorporate them into this.  
  
This is the 'Great War' isn't it? Who X-Com and the Star Spawn are- The Star Spawn is an alliance of alien races from throughout the X-Com game series, they're an expansionistic galactic power and they are obsessed with destroying earth. They boasted superior technology and numbers. Mankind was powerless to stop them.  
  
X-Com was the counter to that threat. They were formed in 1999 to fight the aliens and were a multinational organization. The fought the First Alien War and defeated the aliens by destroying their base on mars. Then, they were rebuilt to fight the Second Alien War beneath the oceans to destroy toe alien colonists. They won that one too  
  
After that the organization became a private mercenary group. They went on to fight over the megalopolis of Mega Primus against an extra dimensional invasion, and also fought in the outer rim of human space against the alien Star Spawn again. They're a longstanding military group who've been fighting aliens from the start. They've got a lot of skills and talent with fighting aliens.  
  
Who the Human Alliance is – I consider it to be a synergy of all the Humanoid races represented in the Master of Orion series. They're exellent traders and diplomats and are uncanny spies and 'researchers'. They're a unification democracy, which means their political system is so advanced that people don't even need to be elected, they just do what the people want. It's an enlightened form of direct democracy. The original groups were humans and they possed a long and proud military tradition which made them a strong power in the Orion sector.  
  
As for the Saurian Republic and the Sentient Machine Empire, they are nominally independent nations. The Saurian republic was annexed by the Human alliance after a long war, they managed to gain a strong sense of nationalism and patriotism over two thousand years of human rule. The Sentient Machine Empire is an empire made up entirely of AI's and Sentient machines.  
  
An answer to a question– Ivan Alias: I did send you an Email a while back, I guess you didn't get it. Sorry about that. Feel free to base any fics you want off of this one, or any of my stories. And I think this is a first, a Fan Fic based off a Fan fic...  
  
And the next chappie will be the beginning of the meat of the story; Chapter 1: Wars on a thousand worlds.


	3. Chapter 1: Wars on a Thousand Worlds

First, about those dates and long wars I cited...I did say that alternate history and fictional history were being used.  
  
I must apologize. My Computer died, and with it, the virus that killed my loyal PC corrupted all my saved data on CD. And as such, those of you that have read all my works and are waiting for updates...  
  
Sorry it took so long, I needed to start over with the latest chapters. All my pristine, untouched work was lost to some damn virus. I had to buy a whole new PC.  
  
So, I'm beginning at stage one. So;  
  
Chapter 1: Wars on a Thousand Worlds.  
  
HALO Galaxy #: 835315-4324A Principle Military Factions: Global Defense Initiative/Brotherhood of Nod. Current Geo-Political State: Open Warfare between GDI and NOD Viability and assets: Tiberium Resources make for unique resource base. Resistance quotient: If both factions continue warfare – Low/ If both factions ally – Extremely High  
  
GDI Firebase 'Outlook', Near ruins of Berlin, Germany, 2204 Hours, December 3rd  
  
There had been a lot of strange reports over the past few days. Lights in the sky and unknown radar signals being detected for brief periods...  
That and loosing contact with GDI high command all of a sudden...that was creepy. EMP had never been able to take down the uplink, but it had just gone dead. As though the contact had been cut on one end, unfortunately all the comms gear at the base was operational. That meant that Space Station Philadelphia was the problem...or it wasn't there.  
Everyone on base was spooked. Even though they were veteran troopers they weren't behaving rationally. They were unnerved by everything that was going on...  
If that wasn't enough...  
The NOD refugees that had stumbled into sensor range, half dead and ranting about Aliens attacking them and destroying their base had pushed the troopers over the edge. Every trooper on base was talking about alien invasions and attacks by Martians.  
Firebase 'Outlook' had been a peaceful humanitarian aid base. The troops had been equipped with stun rifles and EMP tanks. They'd been pulled three days ago and replaced with M16 Mk. II pulse rifles and grenades. These troopers were decked out for combat.  
Combat with whatever was coming for them...  
  
"Captain..." Sgt. Mayberry said quietly. He'd just come back in from patrol and was intent on giving a quick report to the post CO. His enviro suit was still sealed, the weather out there wasn't exactly plesant.  
"Yes Sergeant?" Captain Montaughe said looking up from the small map screen in the command bunker. It boasted a few small map screens and views into the encampment through bunker viewports.  
"The men are worried sir, very worried. Strange lights and even stranger stories from the NOD prisoners, we just don't know what to think of it, sir." Sergeant Mayberry said.  
"Neither do I." Captain Montaughe replied.  
"Sir?"  
"I don't like it, no matter how I stack it up I don't like the way this entire situation is going down. I want more intelligence. And that's where you come in Sergeant." Montaughe said.  
"Yes sir?"  
"I want you to take a squad and investigate the NOD base coordinates. The prisoners told us the location, but I want it checked out to try and see if what they're talking about is accurate." Montaughe said.  
"Yes sir, I'll get right on it." Sgt. Mayberry said and left the command center. The Captain returned to studying his displays and hoping for word from space station Philadelphia.  
  
After an hour Sgt. Mayberry was in the back of an amphibious APC and they were trundling through the countryside towards the supposed location of the NOD compuound. The wheeled transport thundered across the desolate landscape that had long been scarred by warfare, economic collapse and the ever present and spreading fields of Tiberium.  
The Sgt. Watched out through the front view port as the eerie glow of green and blue tiberium fields cut through the night. The old Sergeant's eyes looked at the beautiful and deadly mineral growths. It was something that was strange, beautiful and yet ever so deadly to humans.  
"We're approaching the base Sergeant." The APC's driver supplied. Mayberry nodded and headed into the back of the APC. He felt the transport slow and stop with a jolt.  
"Okay, NOD base is over this ridge, we're doing a recon of the location. According to the NOD prisoners they were attacked by an unknown force. We're here get as much information as we possible can about who attacked and why." Mayberry said as he lifted his M16 Mk. II and stood by the rear hatch. The other members of the fireteam nodded and stood up, lifting their own weapons.  
Mayberry dropped the rear hatch and the troopers filed out. They spread out with precision and aimed to head up the low ridge that separated their position from the NOD base.  
They'd made it about fifty yards from the APC when a low whine began to cut through the silent night. The troopers crouched down amongst the still standing remains of a small home and watched the air.  
Far off to the east a pair of shapes began to form, light blue running lights were visible in the darkness.  
"No one fires. No one makes any movement." Mayberry said in the darkness. The APC was probably toast, but there wasn't anyone in it to worry about since they'd driven themselves.  
The craft closed in and they became clearly visible as they circled the waiting APC. They didn't look like any kind of NOD craft, or GDI craft. They had small pods that didn't look like any kind of engine, but there wasn't any visible means of propulsion either.  
"Aliens..." One of the soldiers muttered.  
"Quiet." Mayberry said, more to keep himself from saying 'aliens' than anything else. They watched the twin craft orbit around the APC for a short time before they turned aggressive. The strange craft dove in and sprayed the APC with blue and green energy fire until it exploded in an orange fireball.  
"Shit." Mayberry swore, they'd just lost their ride and it was going to be a long walk back...  
"Alright, let's move out." The Sgt. said as the craft disappeared. The platoon followed along, all the more nervous as they followed him up the hill. They moved very rapidly, clearly they wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.  
Sgt. Mayberry reached the top of the ridge and hit the dirt, spell bound by what he was seeing.  
The remnants of a Nod base lay spread out before him. The power plants and the Tiberium Refineries were intact and visible. But the other buildings had been leveled. In their place were a series of strange structures and tents that seemed to be sheltering...  
Sheltering...aliens...  
Mayberry raised a pair of binoculars to his eyes and looked down on the encampment, zooming in and examining the figures that clearly were not human. Not even mutants looked like some of these creatures. There were small shark like bipeds and larger creatures, all of which were wearing a mishmash of differently colored armor. Sleek tanks prowled through the perimeter.  
"ET phone home..." One of the troopers said.  
"Fuck ET..." Mayberry replied quietly.  
  
HALO Galaxy #: 830285-35348FS Principle Military Factions: Terran Federation/Pesudo Arachnids Current Geo-Political State: Genocidal Scale warfare between Terran Federation and Pesudo Arachnids Viability and assets: Military oriented culture Resistance quotient: Terran Federation – High / Pseudo Arachnids – Extremely High Notes: Beware of Pesudo Arachnids, they have been possibly aligned with the 'Horde'  
  
Mobile Infantry Strike team 'The Volunteers' Patrol on Hadrians Forge World, 0853 Hours, March 5th  
  
"OP 4 reports a new push against their position." Third Lieutenant Yeves said listening to his comm.-set. He looked over the overgrown fields and remnants of farmsteads that dotted the face of the planet. Hadrians Forge World had been an agricultural colony. But the Bugs had taken a particular interest in the planet and of course, that meant that the MI had to come in and get the civilians off.  
And right now the 'Volunteers' were fighting like hell trying to kept the bugs from getting at the civvies while they pulled out.  
OP 4 was watching the northern bridge into the central perimeter. Bugs couldn't swim too well so that made the river a big defensive position for them. One squad and a marauder suit had been set up there to hold the position and keep it blocked off from the bugs.  
"Affirmative..." Yeves replied. He was only a third lieutenanat, a Trainee more or less, temporarily detached from OCS. 2nd Lieutenant Wilson and 1st Lieutenant Chaplin were in charge.  
"Send fourth squad to reinforce them and hold firm." Lt. Chaplin said. Yeves nodded and relayed the commands.  
"This is Ensign Deltoyas, we area reporting an inbound dropship on you location. Terran Security Services have decided to drop in a team." The commo unit said loudly.  
"Affirmative." Chaplin said and looked at the small airstrip behind the hill they were standing on. Several droopships and retrieval boats were sitting on the tamarack, shoveling civilians in as fast as they could, and then boosting into orbit. Off in the distance, one small dot was rapidly growing into a boxy retrieval boat, auguring in on the small landing pads.  
"Lt. Yeves, please met our guests." Lt. Chaplin said with a wiry smile. The 3rd Lt. nodded and set off for the small runway. He arrived just as the boat set down on the pad and the hatches opened. Out of the small bay poured a squad worth of soldiers.  
Each one wore the black leather coats and peaked caps of Terran Security, and carried RANDOM plasma rifles. The squad of security officers fanned out and took up protective positions around the highest ranking officer of the group, a Colonel.  
"Sir! Lt. 3rd class Yeves, sir!" Yeves snapped feeling like he was in boot again.  
"At ease trooper. I'll need your Unit commander ASAP. We've got a problem." The Colonel said.  
"Yes sir, this way please sir." Yeves said and headed back up the hill quickly. The Colonel and his guard followed along, easily keeping pace. They crested the hill and marched up to Lt. Chaplin.  
"Sir, welcome to Hadrians Forge World sir." Lt. Chaplin said with a salute.  
"Yes Lieutenant, Internal security has a problem that we need your help with. We've located an artifact that is desperately needed for research. And it's in this sector." The Colonel said.  
"Yes sir, we'll assist in any way possible sir." Chaplin said.  
"Exellent Lieutenant. We need your men to clear an area at grid location...3592-Northwest." The Colonel said.  
"That's bug country sir." Chaplin responded.  
"Yes it is Lieutenant. Right over that northern bridge. Airstrikes are inbound to clear the area out, you need to take and hold a position for us to set a Nova class warhead." The Colonel replied. He looked southwards as a flight of fighters screamed by heading towards the northern river and the massive warrior tide that was pushing across the bridge. The perfect 'V' formation flew straight overhead, not bothering to fire cannons or launch missiles, they merely let fall a cluster of napalm and nerve gas canisters. The effect tore the heart out of the bug assault.  
"Alright, reserve units one through five, push across the bridge. Bounce squads Nine, ten, eleven and twelve, redeploy over the bridge and secure the area, Internal Security is on it's way." Chaplin said.  
The Colonel nodded and set off towards the newly bombed and soon to be cleared area.  
  
It was dark. It was exceptionally dark. Only the beams of spotlights that the Scout armor had illuminated the cavern. It was big, easily big enough to swallow up a whole lot of plasma bugs and not even feel cramped. The scout squad that had accompanied the Internal Security unit into the crater they'd dug with their Nova bomb wasn't exactly clear on what they were looking at.  
"It looks Egyptian." One of the Internal Security officers said.  
"I concur, and judging by the information that has been gathered, I'm not surprised." The nameless Colonel said.  
"Yes, the alien culture did seem to revolve around that belief system to a degree. But also, there is a much different system of writing in place. I'm unable to decipher it." One of the black garbed officers said, holding a light to the columns and ruins that filled the massive chamber.  
"Yes, we'll get all this to fleet and crypto once we recover it." The Colonel said. He surveyed the stifling darkness and emptiness of the room with a wary eye. A lot of bugs could be in here, and just because he couldn't sense them didn't mean they weren't there.  
He turned to his colleagues and was about to say something when the inert stone disk that was the center piece of the ruins wasn't so inert anymore. One of the stones on the side lit up.  
"Cover." The Colonel said. The Internal Security troops took cover and the troopers in Scout Armor raced for whatever cover they could as the stones lit up one by one and a small inner ring began to spin.  
"Hold fire, I say again, hold fire." The Colonel said in the quiet expanse. In a last moment, the Scout troopers cut their lights and darkness finally consumed the room. The only points of light were those of the dirty, clouded red stones set into the periphery of the ring device.  
Until it exploded into a fountain of glowing, shimmering liquid.  
"Hold fire." The Colonel repeated.  
The 'pool' of glowing substance was suspended vertically, ruling out the possibility that it was a liquid of any kind. It didn't make sense; it rippled and frothed like a liquid, but was suspended vertically.  
Without any sort of warning, figures began to emerge from the glowing wall. But they weren't walking through it from the other side of the ring...they were emerging from it. The Colonel didn't sense the interlopers until they had set foot on the ground and cleared the wall.  
This was getting increasingly odd.  
The new arrivals stood clad in a strange sort of armor. It looked like plate and chain mail armor, and they carried what looked like staves. They were human though. The hidden Mobile Infantry soldiers peered out from their cover and watched the growing numbers of new arrivals forming up.  
One unit of the arrivals formed themselves into a squad and began to march off towards the small rays of light far behind the ring.  
"KREE!" A voice barked. In unison the mass of strange soldiers leveled their spears and opened fire with a flurry of orange energy blasts. The barrage began to chew away at the small structure one of the Scout troopers was covering behind.  
"FIRE!" The Colonel shouted and leveled his plasma rifle at the soldiers.  
As one the entire Scout section and Internal Security unit opened fire with a flurry of Chain-cannon rounds and plasma blasts, tearing into the opposing force. The enemy warriors dropped like they had been chopped down. The chain rounds were heavy enough to tear through an Arachnid Warrior's carapace so the light armor the enemy wore was no match.  
The firefight was little more than systematic slaughter. The MI was more than effective at fire fights, and their armor was making the battle decidedly one sided.  
After the last Mortia Chain-Cannon halted, the Scout troopers moved forward into the small lit area. As they reached the shimmering disk, it ceased to exist.  
By whatever reason, the gateway, or whatever it was winked out of existence.  
"This is Colonel Rickhard, the Stargate is secured. I say again, the Stargate is secured." The Colonel said into his comm.  
  
HALO Galaxy #: 5363353-57456UC Principle Military Factions: United States of America/Confederate States of America/German Empire/Republic of India Current Geo-Political State: Cold War between United States and Confederate States Viability and assets: Widespread Genetic engineering with food stocks Resistance quotient: United States – Moderate to High / Confederate States – Low to Moderate / German Empire – Low / Republic of India - Low  
  
Confederate GEV recon unit 'Greased Lightning' Near US/CS border at Texas, 0056 Hours, July 9th  
  
"This is Patrol Delta-23, moving in against hostile forces at co- ordinates, 84 by 42. Over." Captain Hedrix said. He looked out at the world through the vision slits in his Stuart pattern hovercraft. The plains and flat open spaces looked remarkably desolate and lifeless in the muted green of night vision goggles.  
"This is base, affirmative Delta-23. You have weapons free to engage." The radio replied.  
Normally, getting weapons free in this neck of Texas mean a shooting war with the USA. Very tempting but exceptionally bloody if it ever happened. Right now they were going after something other than the damn- yankees.  
Aliens.  
Yeah, Captain Hedrix had reckoned his CO was insane at the prospect, but no two ways about it...aliens had landed. Reptilian things that weren't blazing around with blasters and star fighters like in 'Star Wars', no...they were as advanced as the CSA or the USA. Mebee' a little better, but not all of them, just most of them.  
They'd invaded both to boot. Along with the German Empire, the United Republic of India and the Russian Soviet Republic, the aliens had made a very large scale planetary invasion. That had made the delicate USA/CSA situation something much less of a concern for everyone, beating off an alien invasion was much more important.  
"Thanks home base, y'all be ready for a nice turkey shoot." Captain Hedrix said over the radio. He knew it was wishful thinking, but they needed something for confidence. These aliens weren't exactly stupid. The Stuart MGEV-7 platoon glided over the flat terrain of northern Texas and towards the small alien encampment that was supposedly in place.  
And there it was, a small lit jewel in the desolate prairie they were gliding across.  
"Lock 'n load boys, let's kill us some critters." The Captain said over his comm lines. No one replied, they were too busy loading up and getting ready. Hedrix un-dogged the top hatch and stuck his head out.  
The fast moving warm wind cut into his face, and the sounds of the giant blower fans at the rear of the MGEV-7 drowned out all sounds. But thanks to his heavy goggles he could see clearly. Rapidly approaching were the lights of the alien encampment the small forms that were arrayed before him were growing ever larger.  
Hedrix brought his head back down and sealed the hatch. He looked through the periscopes and watched.  
The MGEV-7 had ten guided missiles and four rocket pods, along with a chaingun. A potent force against anything earth bound, but they might not be enough to use against an alien invasion. That was one of the reasons that they were attacking.  
To find out if they could smack the aliens of the CSA and off the planet.  
Soon, all too soon the MGEV-7 closed into weapons range. The forms of tanks and troops were easily visible. Smaller forms of skittering troops were also in view.  
"Weapons free, let's smack 'em boys." Hedrix said.  
As one, twelve missiles, one from each MGEV-7 in the platoon fired out across the plains and into the waiting enemy. Eight neat pyres of flame erupted as the shaped charge warheads detonated and ripped through the alien armor. Two missed, and the other two had no effect.  
The answer was quick and vivid. A barrage of blue fire answered the first wave of missiles. Three of his craft went up in flames. Their light armor was no match for the plasma weapons that answered them. The lucky ones dodged and glided off, sweeping down on the encampment like birds of prey.  
It was a spectacle; the massive MGEV-7's weaving through the unprepared alien forces. Missiles, rockets and chaingun fire mixed with the loud thrum of plasma weapons. It was chaos, and it was war.  
Hedrix's driver pulled the hovercraft around and laid a burst of chaingun fire into a barricade, ripping apart the fragile cover and following up with a volley of rockets.  
"Alright, bring us around and get ready to m-" Hedrix said but was cut off when he almost bit through his tongue. It felt like the hovercraft had been kicked with an enormous boot. Something had smacked the vehicle with explosive force.  
"I have no control!" The pilot shouted. Hedrix swore, they were dead on the ground.  
"Bail out!" He shouted back, his hand falling on the Tredgar carbine next to his seat. His fingers wrapped around the foregrip and yanked it free from it's safety catches. It came loose as he hit the emergency release on the cockpit. The smoke that was beginning to fill the compartment dissipated as the sealed chamber was vented to the open night air. The slightly muted interior of the MGEV-7 was a rapid contrast to the overwhelming din of combat. Explosions, the loud rattle of gunfire and the ear splitting roar of the MGEV-7's blower fans was enough to disorient someone.  
Herdix ignored it and shouldered the carbine, he didn't have time to be disoriented, he was catching fire. The newly dismounted pilot leveled his Tredgar Carbine at an alien that seemed to be wearing some kind of massive tan colored plate armor. A burst of 5.57mm rounds caught the alien in its elongated flat faceplate and it pitched back. Its three fingered hands loosing their grip on the long rifle it held. Hedrix ducked instinctively as more fire came his way. He ducked and sprinted across open ground, liberally spraying ammunition at his attackers.  
He dove behind a stack of odd crates and flinched as a flurry of energy peppered his new cover. A series of alien cries rang out and began to get closer.  
Hedrix let out a wordless war cry and stood up, carbine leveled and trigger held down fast. The thirty-six round clip was emptied and Hedrix reloaded smoothly. He downed that clip just as fast.  
The cavalry officer let the carbine fall limp on its strap and his hands went for his Armory .455, and his cavalry saber.  
"Come get me!" Hedrix shouted in a final loud cry as one of the larger aliens wearing golden plate armor charged him, a blue energy sword clasped in its talons.  
  
HALO Galaxy #: 98321876952-41274574G Principle Military Factions: Earth Forces Regulars / Zeon / The Republic of Orb Current Geo-Political State: Open warfare between the EFR and Zeon / Republic of Orb is neutral. Viability and assets: Minovsky jamming technology capable of disrupting any kind of guided munitions and electronic sensors. Resistance quotient: EFR – Moderate to High / Zeon – Moderate to High / Republic of Orb – Low to Moderate  
  
Remnats EFR & Zeon Mobile suit units, Near edge of Compei Island shoal zone, 0900 Hours, Febuary 11th  
  
Lt. Nadiere was gasping in her E suit. Sweat rolled down her face in torrents despite the low temperature in her environmental gear. The faceplate clouded with fog as she tried to calm down. Through the light haze she watched her screens with rapt attention. Passive sensors said that it was still out there, hunting her.  
The aliens.  
Nadiere wasn't about to risk radar or lidar to see if they were out there, but she didn't have to, the passives were registering scanner activity that was off the charts. Whatever they were scanning with, it wasn't earth based.  
She was terrified, even if she was an 'N-Type' there was no denying that the EFR and Zeon forces had their heads handed to them when they were fighting the aliens. Well, the fact that the EFR was trying to push the Zeon forces out of the Compei shoal zone didn't help. They'd been busy blazing away at each other when the giant ship had dropped in on them, spewing fighters and blazing away with energy weapons from their triangular hulled ships.  
The battle had been short, sweet, and ever so brutal. Of the fourty Mobile suits in the EFR detachment, and the twenty in the Zeon detachment, only two were left.  
One Zeon, and herself.  
Nadiere shifted her optical units towards the Zeon mobile suit. They were both sitting inside the blasted out hulk of a starship. The Zeon suit was an MS-14F Glegoog. One of the best mobile suits in the solar system.  
The guy was an ace.  
That suit could probably be a match for her own RGM-79SC sniper suit.  
But right now neither of them was interested in killing the other, they cared more about hiding out and avoiding being killed themselves.  
The small laser comm on Nadiere's suit was more than capable of communicating with the Zeon pilot, but she didn't want to do anything to alert the aliens to where they were located.  
But she'd have to say something, they'd have to figure out what they were going to do.  
'Zeon pilot, I am Lt. Nadiere...EFR, what is you rank and name?' Nadiere sent. The laser comm was little more than complicated morse code, the laser blipped out a message and was automatically translated.  
After a few moments, she recived her answer.  
'I am ace pilot, Captain Jamenson of the Zeon Marines.' The Zeon pilot responded.  
'I guess our own battle is mot at this point. Is it not?' Nadiere sent.  
'Yes, it would seem so.'  
'What do we intend to do about this?'  
'I do not know terran, my concern is with Zeon, I care not for your regime.'  
'Just as I care not for yours.' Nadiere shot back.  
'I would expect nothing else.' The Zeon pilot said. Nadiere sneered and raised the beam rifle clasped in her Mobile suit's hand. The Zeon pilot mirrored the action. Neither said anything for a long time, they merely sat there with the weapons ever so blatantly aimed at each other.  
'Did your government know?' Jamenson asked.  
'If they did, they didn't tell me. You?' Nadiere said simply.  
'No.' Jamenson replied.  
'So what is the current plan then?' Nadiere asked.  
'If we are to do something worthwhile we need to escape this hulk and get to Compei island. They need to be warned.' Jamenson said. That statement making the stark reality of the situation all the more clear, Compei Island boasted an EFR garrison force.  
'What do you propose?" Nadiere asked.  
Whether or not Jamenson was going to respond, Nadiere never knew. The twisted remnants of the freighter they were hiding in shook with almighty fury. Brilliant explosions began to burst into life along the hull.  
They'd been found.  
Without a pause both of the MS pilots pushed their massive creations into motion and shot out the ragged gap in the side of the ship. It was odd, even though they had been enemies mere hours ago, they were fighting into the jaws of death together.  
Nadiere rocketed her MS out of the chasm and into the teeth of their attackers.  
There were enough fighters to drown the Mobile suits.  
'Good luck to you EFR pilot.' Jamenson said in a final message.  
'And to you Zeon pilot.' Nadiere responded.  
She kicked her verniers to full and dove into the swarms of triangular fighters. Her dual beam sabers triggered and slicing through the ships like a raw energy beam through air. The Zeon ace was doing the same. Fighter craft could never hold their own against a pair of Ace N- Type pilots in top of the line Mobile Suits. They were ripping apart the enemy fighters with ease.  
'Head for the field.' The small, canned air computer voice said. But Nadiere could tell that the voice giving the message was screaming it.  
The triangular craft was firing it's main emplacements. Massive green tinged energy darts scythed through the darkness. Clearly, they wanted the pair of pilots dead at all costs. The gun crews were firing into their own fighter craft with what seemed to be little hesitation. But it was a ragged and spotty barrage.  
The Minovsky jamming was screwing with their targeting systems, bad...  
Nadiere ignored the fire and headed for the debris field, into the deep, thick and tumbling fog. She was redlining her verniers and the dust clouds weren't getting any closer. Through her front cameras she could see red lines of energy fire coming close to her suit. But so long as it was just close and not dead on, she was fine with it.  
Then a shudder, a tumbling sensation, and the entire world went black  
  
HALO Galaxy #: 644599431615-554854JA Principle Military Factions: Skynet / Tech-Com Current Geo-Political State: Tech-Com forces pushed to near extinction by Skynet forces. Viability and assets: Advanced automated weapons systems possessed by Skynet Resistance quotient: Skynet – High / Tech-Com – Moderate  
  
Covenant assault group, Within the ruins of New York City, 1903 Hours, September 9th  
  
"This is the first wave, we are heavily engaged with enemy forces." That was the overriding message that was coming up from the surface. The first waves had begun landing on the planet around what were supposed to be major population centers. Instead of stiff human resistance, they met with stiff resistance from some kind of machine forces.  
Tau, Lizard and Star Spawn forces had been heavily engaged in clearing out a beachhead for the main bodies of troops.  
And right now that first wave was coming in a swarm of dropships that were heading down for the main LZ that had been carved out of an overgrown area in the center of a former metropolis.  
The humans here had been mostly wiped out, crushed with their own weapons and nearly exterminated by their own creations.  
Now both were going to be destroyed by the cleansing blade of the Covenant Hegemony.  
  
File Leader Fri'Pitamane sat within the armored hold of the dropship, waiting for the pilot to bring the ship to a halt for the teams to disembark. The elite was ready for battle. The cadre of grunts that he commanded wasn't as interested in a fight as he was, but he did not care. It was his chance to bring honor to himself in battle.  
"One mini-cycle." The pilot said. Pitamane stood up as the dropship halted it's decent and the side doors split open. In a smooth motion Pitamane leapt out the gap and into the fray of combat.  
It wasn't like anything the elite had ever thought it could be.  
A line of Tau Firewarriors was held up behind an improvised barricade. They were firing steadily into the onrushing waves of attackers. The elite paused, whatever they were, there was no way they could be organics.  
They vaguely resembled human skeletons, but covered in shiny metallic metal. It was nothing short of strange to see the spindly creatures marching forward, and carrying obviously deadly and heavy weapons so easily. Behind them lumbered a massive construct that rolled along on caterpillar treads. Seacrhlights and weapons emplacements stuck out on protrusions. It was an incredibly deadly looking machine.  
Pitamane didn't care, he charged towards the barricade, firing his plasma rifle with reckless abandon. His flurry of fire tore into the massed attackers, but barely made them halt when the rounds connected.  
They just kept marching forwards into the fullisade of plasma fire.  
"A bit tough to kill aren't they!" One of the Tau hollered over the din of weapons fire and support craft. Behind them a Wraith tank hovered in with a pair of Hammerhead Gunships. A flock of gun-drones swarmed forward as well, plasma fire and plasma grenades tore into the assault wave, along with rail gun fire and heavier plasma fire.  
Explosions and raw energy ripped the ranks of advancing machines apart, but they did not slow in the slightest.  
  
If the average T-201 Combat unit was capable of being confused, many of those that made up the assault waves would be. Their primary target parameters had been to search out and destroy humans. The HK-Airborne units had located a large concentration of organics that needed to be wiped out.  
Although they never specified the types of organics.  
The physiological information matched no known type of sentient life on this planet. Their weapons systems, personal protective armor and projected energy shielding did not resemble any other information that Skynet possessed.  
That could lead to only one conclusion.  
Non terrestrial humanoid-organic-sentient life.  
Disturbing.  
But the T-201's weren't exactly concerned with different organic creatures that carried arms against them.  
They simply kept on killing them.  
  
And Chappie Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry, I am soooo Sorry about this again. My computer just kicked it and I'm flying high on a Compaq now that works pretty well. So I should be posting more and longer now. Sorry.  
  
Chappie two will be coming up soon, I have a week off from school so halleluiah! You're going to see how far the Coalition is willing to go in this war. And you might even see Chappie three, where you'll meet the new, improved, much more deadly Spartans. (Think a Klingon in Mjolinor, or Teal'c in Mjolinor, or a wookiee in Mjolinor that ought to give you a really good idea.)  
  
So, Chapter 2: The Meeting of the high council And maybe even Chapter 3: Spartans, the Next Generation, if I'm ambitious 


	4. Chapter 2: A meeting of the High Council

Chapter 2: The Meeting of the High Council  
  
Sentient Coalition High Command Former Human Alliance Fortress world of 'Filmar IV' Main Assembly Chamber  
  
It was one of the most heavily defended and protected planets in the universe. And one of the most inhospitable worlds in existence, adding to it's sheer impenetrable nature.  
Eight worlds, covered in horrific corrosive atmospheres and incomprehensible diseases and hostile life made up the core of the system. The moons that the planets boasted were just as horrible, be they volcanic abominations incapable of supporting even the most rudimentary life, to the swampy orbs of death that had viruses that could kill a being in seconds, this system seemed to be hell. Even the space surrounding it was deadly, the harsh gravitational pull of the system was enough to fill the space around it with dense asteroid belts and clouds. Radioactive Nebula and dust clouds could kill unprotected organics, and scramble electronics.  
The Human Alliance colonized the 'Filmar' system during the early years of it's interstellar expansion. The 'Filmar' system was a primary choke point for trade lanes into Terra, that made it a vital corridor to defend against invasion. Despite the general inhospitable nature of the entire system, colonists were sent.  
Unfortunately they didn't last long. Every single planet was equally uninhabitable. The diseases and horrific surface conditions wiped out every living thing sent there. But, the Human Alliance Military saw the utility of having such a deadly system under its control. Orbital assaults were nearly impossible.  
So the Human Alliance began to dig, and dig. They mined out all the resources on the eight worlds that the 'Filmar' system possessed and constructed massive, elaborate underground bases. The entire system boasted ten billion inhabitants. All of them military personnel living beneath the harsh surfaces of the planets, they manned the orbital defense weapons, the missile batteries and cared for the fighter garrisons that would beat off any assault at Terra.  
Each world was honeycombed with subterranean fortresses. Orbital defense guns sat protected within underground silos and bunkers, ready to open up and bat any attacker from the skies. Fighter wings lay in wait within their hangers, shielded from the harsh surface conditions and weather, prepped to leap forth and engage their foes. Missile silos and bases covered the surface of the worlds like hairs on an animal. Energy shields enveloped the surface, each layer capable of defending against massive amounts of bombardment.  
In the surrounding space, orbital weapons platforms and fortress moons made slow careful elipses of the planets, their own dense shielding and weapons systems just as deadly as those on the surface.  
Within the clouds of asteroids that enveloped the system black holes and quantum singularities were artificially created, a stellar minefield that was infinetly lethal if any vessels varied from the proper approaches. Asteroids were mounted with automated weapons emplacements and even with cloaking devices. A lethal minefield awaited any attackers, or any foolish enough to enter the system at all.  
At any one time nearly three thousand military vessels were on patrol in the asteroid minefields, scouring the space for intruders in addition to the innumerable automated sensor units. Within the space-docks around the worlds of the system, another thousand ships could be under refit and repairs at any time.  
Through out the seven hundred cycles that the planets were garrisoned, they repelled one hundred and eighty seven different pushes on the home-worlds of Terra, and repulsed innumerable planetary assaults. Thanks to this bulwark, no invading force ever reached to perimeter of Terra.  
But now, with the threat of the Covenant Hegemony looming larger than that of the Antarans and Ithkul, the Filmar system was re-tasked for another purpose.  
The system was to become the command center for all coordinated efforts by the Sentient Coalition to battle the Covenant Hegemony. After a year of construction, the system was the nerve center of every effort that the Sentient Coalition could mount against the genocidal Covenant pressure.  
  
The Sentient Coalition Main Council Chamber  
  
Deep within the core of Filmar IV, beneath miles of rock, Adumantium, Zortium, Durasteel, Neutronium, shielding systems and Neosteel, it was one of the safest locations in the universe. Direct Anti-matter weapons fire or even sustained plasma bombardment could not penetrate the heavily protected Council Chamber. The attackers would have to crack the planet open utilizing immense amounts of force.  
That was why the Council was assembled, to discus whether or not immense amounts of force and horrific weapons of war that the Sentient Coalition could boast would be leveled against the Covenant.  
They sat silent within the massive chamber. The semi-circle arch of the room set into risers and tiered levels that rose up from a central platform and podium. Only the podium was illuminated, the rest of the chamber sat in darkness.  
At the Podium stood Ambassador Hiktar, the Human Alliance Representative to the Sentient Coalition. The Human Alliance was in charge of the assembly for the simple reason that they had built the base and it was their territory.  
The dark skinned human looked up and about the darkened room. He drew breath and began to speak.  
"Esteemed colleagues, you are all aware that in the last year of conflict with the Covenant that we have managed to solidify our lines and make great strides towards making a uniform military organization to resist. In this time however, we have avoided discussion of one matter that is of extreme importance to our efforts. Conventional munitions and weapons aside, all our respective races have at our command an extremely potent cadre of weapons that have not been used thus far." Hiktar said.  
"I am speaking of course, about our Weapons of Mass destruction and our Superweapons." Hiktar said, as he finished, his words were punctuated by the anxious mutters and hushed voices of the assembled representatives.  
"I have arranged for various organizations to come forward and discuss the weapons they have available and then we shall see if we are willing to utilize the munitions that are available. First, I wish to call Lt. General Burnlow of the Human Alliance." Hiktar said and stepped away from the podium.  
As he did so, another human rose and moved forward to the podium, his uniform cut along the lines of a Human Alliance dress uniform. Only those with extremely good vision could see that the patches on his shoulders displayed a fist clutching lighting set before a mushroom cloud.  
"Greetings. As you are aware from the Battle of Earth, and the Retaking of Reach, much of the Human Alliance's standard munitons could be considered Weapons of Mass Destruction by less capable races. But there are forms of firepower that even we consider to be WMD. Firstly, our Stellar Converter capital ship weapon." Burlow said and behind him a holographic appeared. The date and time tag was replaced with a caption of 'Second Antaran War: Planet Justinain VII'. The view was looking out through the bridge of a starship, down upon a blue green planet. A small audio was attached with the display.  
'Stellar Converter is online. Awaiting firing order.'  
'Captain Wimington, authorization Gamma-6-Harrold-Philip-35.'  
'Confirmed, voiceprint match.'  
'Commander Rawlings, authorization Kirkland-53-32-Epsilon-Quarter.'  
'Confirmed, voiceprint match.'  
'All confirmed, firing.'  
On the main screen, a golden beam of light shot out from somewhere beneath the bridge and lanced towards the planet. It connected, and blew through the world with ridiculous ease. The crust of the world splintered and broke apart and the disembodied portions drifted into space.  
'Firing complete, planet killed.'  
The General stood silent before the audience before continuing.  
"This is the Stellar Converter weapon. That was one of only a handful of firings that were undertaken by the weapon. As you can see it was extremely effective in the destruction of an entire planet. This weapon was created as both an anti-planetoid weapon and an anti-starship weapon. After the disarmament after the second Antaran war, we limited our numbers of Stellar Converters in exchange for a reduction in the number of Antaran Star Killers." General Burnlow said in a very common tone.  
"Our second set of weapons is more traditional. Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons are familiar to all races; although not in the same sense technologically. Nuclear weapons have been miniaturized to the point that they are standard issue infantry weapons. Chemical munitions are extremely common place as infantry support weapons. Biological weapons are also infantry support pieces. All three of these weapons are in standard use with battle plans, no special authorization is needed." Lt. General Burnlow said.  
"Technologically however, our weapons differ from yours in design. Biological weapons are genetically engineered to be targeted at specific populations. Also, chemical weapons are designed to affect particular forces in specific ways. We are much more discerning with our WMD capabilities than ever before." Lt. General Burnlow continued.  
"Also, we possess Nanological weapons, something that many of your peoples cannot field effectively. We have several Nano weapons at our disposal, all are self sustaining and capable of reproducing autonomously. We have multiple variants; one is a nano-plague, mimicking a viral or bacteriological weapon by infecting an organic and reproducing. We also have a nano-swarm, it is a completely free floating weapon that acts like an artificial locust, devouring anything that it is programmed to attack and consume. Organic, or inorganic." Lt. General Burnlow said.  
"That is the major extent of the weapons we deem to be 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', I shall turn over the briefing to X-Com Wing commander Jon Charles." Lt. Burnlow said and moved away from the podium. He was replaced by another human, this one wearing the dark black with silver medals and regalia of an X-Com fighter pilot. His shoulder flashes boasted the insignia of the 52ND Nova Bomber squadron.  
"Although X-Com has had extensive experience with Alien technology, we only have two potent weapons that are classified as 'WMD' or 'Superweapons'. First, is a chemical agent that targets the genetic structure of a series of alien species, none of which are present in the Coalition. One form is a liquid injected toxin; another is an airborne chemical gas. Both are exceedingly lethal and debilitating, but completely harmless to humans, and Sectoid-Human hybrids."  
"Our other weapon is the Nova Bomb, it is a weapon capable of sending a star into an instant supernova explosion, completely destroying every planetoid in the system. We used this weapon in the Frontier Worlds conflict and also used it to destroy a weapon that was aimed at the destruction of earth." Charles said. He gestured back to the holo screen and it showed a completely healthy star system, the orange star blazing away.  
'This is Inferno 1, preparing for launch.'  
'Conformation Inferno 1, you have weapons free for test firing.'  
'I am lining up, targeting systems are online.'  
'Affirmative.'  
'Launching.'  
'Confirming launch, ordinance is away.'  
On the screen a reddish torpedo launched forwards and accelerated towards the sun. Within a few seconds the projectile was gone.  
'Jumping out of system.'  
On the screen a crescent shaped craft arched by the camera and disappeared. The small time counter in the screen sped up until about fifteen minutes had elapsed. The star began to write and morph. Its surface wheeled and shifted drastically, then exploded outwards in a mass of fire. The blazing sphere engulfed several planets before reaching the camera probe and decimating it.  
"Fifteen minutes after the firing, the weapon compelled the star to supernova, at seventeen minutes after firing, the system was annihilated." Charles said and walked away from the podium.  
In his place marched the gray clad uniform of an Imperial Officer.  
"My name is not important, but I hold the rank of sector general. As the New Republic is fully aware, the military and political forces of the New Order have always possessed Superweapons and weapons of mass destruction." The Imperial officer said.  
"First, our Superweapon capability. First and foremost is the Death Star. Our original construct of a large scale artificial planetoid that carried a massive superlaser, capable of doing the same as the Human Alliance's Stellar Converter. Only three Death Stars were constructed, one that was destroyed at the Battle of Yavin, another that was lost at the Battle of Endor, and a test platform that was lost in the Maw cluster. All three weapons platforms were operational and capable of destroying a planetoid. Our second weapon is the Sun Crusher. This weapon is much the same as the X-Com Nova Bomb. Although the warhead is a fraction of the size, and the delivery platform is nearly invincible. The original Sun Crusher had to be destroyed within the gravitational fields of a Black Hole. It had been buried at the heart of a gas giant with no ill effects."  
"One of our more debilitating weapons is the Galaxy Gun. The weapon fired a self propelled, extremely resilient shell capable of causing a 'Matter shockwave' effect. This means that each round is capable of destroying something as small as a city, or something as large as a planet. The Galaxy Gun was unfortunately destroyed at the Battle of Byss."  
"The most, original, weapons system that has been in use are the World Devastators. These are massive automated weapons factories and mineral extractors. They were designed to be used as mining devices, but they are very potent weapons. That was demonstrated on Calamari."  
"These weapons have all be destroyed, our Death Stars, our Sun Crushers, our Galaxy Guns and our World Devastators. These were all lost during the Civil war. But the New Order retains the plans and specifications for all of these weapons, in preparation for the next time that they are needed."  
"As for Weapons of Mass Destruction, our most potent example is the Krytos plague that was released on Coruscant. That disease was designed to affect only non-humans, but it could be cured with Bacta. This was designed to bring the New Republic to economic ruin. But that plan failed. A host of other Biological weapons are also at Imperial command. Hive viruses and other insidious weapons that are extremely effective. The New Order possesses the genetic codes for these weapons, but lacks the large scale manufacturing capabilities for these weapons."  
The Sector General nodded quietly and walked away from the podium. He walked off to the row where he sat and an individual in the red and black of a Federation Admiral walked forward.  
"Although the Federation finds any kind of indiscriminate weapon of mass destruction abhorrent and horrific, at the compulsion of the High Council, I have been ordered to inform the Sentient Coalition of the Genesis weapon." The Federation officer said.  
"The Genesis project was not intended as a weapons system. IT was created as an instrument capable of spawning life on dead worlds and making them inhabitable. They system was an extreme success, but it does have unintended side effects. On already inhabited worlds, it will destroy all life present. From macro scale humanoid and alien life, down to microbes and viruses, nothing will escape the Genesis effect." The Federation admiral said.  
He turned and walked away from the podium very quickly, as though fleeing attack.  
Ambassador Hiktar took his place at the podium once more.  
"The New Republic must state that we find any use of Super Weapons or Weapons of Mass Destruction to be a gross violation of everything that this body is supposed to represent! These weapons have historically been used against civilians and not military personnel!" The New Republic Ambassador shouted.  
"The Federation does wish to point out that we hold a similar stance! We only disclosed the existence of the Genesis system under duress!" The Federation ambassador added.  
"I must make it clear that the Asguard are in agreement with the Federation and the New Republic on this matter."  
"The Tollan people will never stomach the use of any such weapons against any foe for any reason! We have witnessed the affects of a race using such weapons against one another, and it is an outcome of only destruction for all." The outraged shouts and cries filled the chamber, the noise reaching a high level.  
The UNSC ambassador stood up and walked down one of the aisles to the main floor, then into the light of the podium. Ambassador Hiktar nodded and stepped away from the raised dais and his place as head of the assembly.  
"Might I have the floor?" The UNSC ambassador said softly, but her voice was filled with malice and rage. The look on her face was one of silent and suppressed anger.  
Slowly, the shouted protests and admonishments died away, leaving all eyes glued to the human that stood before them.  
"While I can respect the positions of those that have suffered at the hands of such weapons, I cannot understand the need for so many to protect the Covenant. Your peoples have not know the war in any extent. Your fleets have fought the battles and your soldiers have fought theirs. But your people have not suffered. Your people have not been slaughtered."  
"Almost one hundred billion innocent lives have been lost to the Covenant Armadas' standard practice of 'sterilizing' a planet with plasma fire. Have any of you seen a plasma bombardment? Have any of you seen a planet's atmosphere boiled away to nothingness? To see oceans turned to steam, forests burned to cinders, deserts made into epic expanses of charred glass?"  
"The Covenant Hegemony has resorted to practices that have carried out planetary genocide, and you have the gall to stand up and debate whether using our own weapons is 'distasteful' and 'abhorrent'?"  
"Of course it is. How could you even suppose that the rest of this assembly does not understand what these weapons are capable of? They are for the most part, indiscriminate weapons of mass murder. But they are tools that we can use to gain an advantage against the Covenant, however slim an advantage. I know that many of your peoples have suffered at the hands of these weapons and you all know how terrible they are. But none of your peoples have suffered like mine. We've lost over a hundred billion people in this war, and it's still not even close to being over."  
"Right now, the Covenant and our militaries are fighting against each other in space, and we're fighting against destruction people. Anything that we do will be an improvement to our condition. Whatever we must do to preserve our way of life is a good thing."  
"But what of how our way of life will exist if we resort to these weapons! How will we be judged for wielding our most terrible weapons of war against the enemy?" Someone –though it sounded like it came from the Federation section– shouted.  
"For us to be judged for what we do, someone must survive to live on. If we lose this war with the Covenant, then we shall care not for how history judges us...because no one shall be left to admonish us for our sins."  
"We are not fighting each other, we are not fighting for conquest. We are fighting for survival. And no matter who you think you are, be you the Tollan who think that this war will pass you by, or the Klingons who wish for the glory of battle...this war will find you and it will not be stopped by a plea of 'no, stop'. The Covenant always glasses a planet, and that is their weapon of mass destruction. We must use every weapon we have in our arsenals to fight against them. No matter how insidious or distasteful they may be." The UNSC ambassador finished, her voice trembling as she looked up at the other representatives hidden in darkness. They were safe on their high ground. They thought that morals and honor would be worth more than victory.  
They were wrong.  
Admiral Hiktar returned to the dais and looked back at the ambassadors and representatives.  
"I must make it known that this is not a vote to decide whether these weapons will be used. This is an assembly to inform you that they will be used. The Human Alliance is authorizing the Imperial New Order, X-Com, and other races to cooperate with our scientist in the refinement of their Chemical and Biological weapons. Also, the Imperial New Order has begun working with Human Alliance engineers to redesign and rebuild their own weapons systems." Hiktar said.  
The cries of outrage from the assembly were horrendous.  
"May I remind you that the UNSC ambassador is right. Many of you may claim that you hold the moral high ground and many of you may think that counts for something. It doesn't. The Covenant will not care so you should stop thinking it is true." Hiktar said.  
More outraged cries came from the council chambers.  
"This matter is settled, and regardless of what happens, the Covenant shall finally feel a small portion of the wrath that they have so willingly vested upon others." Ambassador Hiktar said.  
"Still! The Federation shall never knowingly support any kind of attack with such indiscriminate weapons of mass murder! We shall do so under only extreme protest!" The Federation ambassador shouted.  
"You find yourself seeking moral high ground ambassador! That is something that is unattainable in this situation! The Goa'uld would see your world subjugated without a second thought for their Covenant masters. The Tok'ra know that they shall never be defeated short of total annihilation!" The Tok'ra representative said just as loudly.  
"If we abandon the moral high ground and that of justice, what are we left with?" The New Republic ambassador retorted.  
"Victory." The X-Com representative answered back. This assembly was rapidly turning into a shouting match, if not two steps removed from a brawl.  
"I concur with the X-Com representative. The Council of Earth fought a war against the Reticulans and we were on the verge of annihilation. In this circumstance there is no time or opportunity for us to be paragons of morality." The representative from the Council of earth said. His world had been nearly wiped out by an alien race intent on creating a 'super- brain' they'd fought hard and managed to destroy the experiment and the aliens. But almost all the world's population was gone.  
"But we make ourselves no better than the Covenant if we resort to these weapons. We become just as horrible as they are." The New Republic ambassador continued.  
"Is this really the time to be better than they are? We're looking for victory, not good PR. We have to aim for genocide if we are to achieve victory. None of the members of the Covenant Hegemony are willing to submit to rule or accept peace. And that means that we must aim to eradicate them from the Universe to hope for peace. No negotiation, no deliberation, we have to sweep them from the face of the worlds they control to hope to liberate them." The Imperial Ambassador interrupted. While the Empire and the New Republic were on semi-civil terms after the Yuuhuzan Vong invasion, they weren't exactly chums.  
"That's rich coming from a group that survived on Xenophobia for control of their people." The New Republic ambassador snapped.  
"Enough!" Hiktar shouted over the arguing voices. Slowly, begrudgingly, they quieted.  
"As I said, this matter is not open for debate. Victory and survival are at stake here, and we do not possess the luxury of honor at this point. We do possess the ability to fight and win on terms that have the capacity to make even the Covenant and their assembled subjects' quake in fear of us. They can devastate the surface of a planet. We can wipe out all life on them, destroy entire solar systems and wipe out only a select sample of their population. With these weapons we can compel the Covenant to fear us. And with these weapons we can kill them all." Hiktar said gruesomely. His tone and demeanor sent the clear message that the Human Alliance had never been above wholesale destruction.  
But it also showed how this people had fought and survived dozens of wars against superior forces, and why the Antarans, the most technologically advanced force in this galaxy was so afraid of them.  
They were willing to do whatever it took to win.  
  
Chappie. I know this one was short, but I wanted to give the impression that this alliance of peoples is not perfect, they're only organic and they won't necessarily get along on all matters. I also wanted to show that the Sentient Coalition has weapons at its command that are slightly more horrific than the Covenant.  
  
And that among them, there are those more than willing to engage in Total War against them.  
  
Okay, now the next Chapter that everyone is going to enjoy.  
  
Chapter 3: Spartans, the Next Generation 


	5. Chapter 3: Spartans, the Next Generation

Dunno if this is goign to double post or not, but I can't bring up the chapter so I don't think anyone else can...

In the immortal words of Mark Twain: Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  
  
It the words of my EMT-I and EMT-II instructor, Mr. Zima: You ain't dead till you're warm and dead.  
  
Sorry for the delay as usual, school...not just any school, Emergency medical technician Training. It's a...well, pain in the bilateral posterior area that's inferior to my cervical vertebrae. If you catch my drift.  
  
Two things: One – While I am making this a massive crossover story, my idea and intent with this is to keep it in a much broader sense than actually including specific characters. I do include the Master Chief, and I did include some prominent characters from other series, but that was just to give some larger flavor and depth to the series, and to familiarize some people with what's going on.  
  
I like to think I'm doing a different kind of crossover, one that focuses on the ideas and universes that were created, not just on the characters that populate them. For me, thats something that is all too much neglected in making a crossover, the writer can make a believable, understandable interaction with the characters, but they don't really explore the clashes between the realities and universes that those characters populate. That's what makes it fun for me.  
  
And two- Ahem, to those who know such things... Several fans and followers have given recommendations for groups and forces to be included that I know practically nothing about. My base of resources is rather limited in many respects and I can say that I don't know nearly enough about everything that people want, nor do I know nearly as much about some of the groups included as others do.  
  
I am hereby asking for information...  
  
Any of you that know a fair amount about the following are welcome to send information to my Email address at   
  
I am interested in information about the following (but not limited to):

Space Above and Beyond

Farscape Mechwarrior

The Gundam Series (Mainstream please, since too many people loathe 'G')

Dune

Battlestar Galactica

'V'

Star Trek

Babylon 5

Andromeda  
  
That's to name a few. Now, if you're going to recommend something to be included, please...please...for the love of god please send me an Email. I do have a school, a full time job, a girlfriend, a family, a commitment to enlist in the US Airforce, pets and several RPG's I'm playing and GMing...I can't add searching for information on a plethora of new groups and ever pray to pull it off correctly.  
  
Now, I know that I can't give anything to those that help me out on this. But I will list you down as a vital source and maybe a co-author if you help me enough.  
  
I do love this story line as much as any of you that read and review, but as it was expressed to me by T. Com in an Email, this story is getting very large and the numbers of races, cultures, stories and ideas that are being included are making this story grow larger than any one person could track and write it properly.  
  
This request also goes out to those of you that have written spin offs of my spin off. I wouldn't mind coordinating with some of you to make the Far Flung Hope universe larger and more complex.  
  
So for those of you that like my story and want to see it get better and more accurate, please Email me with what you know and help me if you like. Thanks. -Bombsquad  
  
Enough of my preaching, on with the story... It's got some action, but this is mainly a technical chapter.  
  
Chapter 3: Spartans, the Next Generation  
  
As of December 31st, 2552, the SPARTAN arm of Naval Special Weapons and Operations is hereby disbanded. All Spartan personnel with the exclusion of Spartans -117, -104, -058, and -043 are re-classified as Killed-in-Action. Spartan -087 is to be classified as Missing-in-Action.  
As of January 1st, 2553, the first official and branch of the unified Sentient Coalition Military (SCM) is now founded. The SPARTAN branch is now commissioned as the premiere Special Forces and special operations group in the universe.  
  
Spartan Training Center, Heart of the Maw Cluster, the Kessel system, January 1ST, 2554, 0503 Hours, UST (Universal Standard Time)  
  
It was an unassailable fortress. The Maw cluster had been home to one of the most secretive instillations in the universe. The think-tank that Grand Moff Tarkin had established within the cluster of black holes and crushing gravitational forces that made it impervious to assault or detection. This research center had spawned some of the most horrible weapons of the Imperial war machine.  
The Death Star.  
The World Devastators.  
The Sun Crusher.  
These designs had all spawned from within this impassable minefield of black holes. It had remained immune to assault until Han Solo and Kyp Durron had uncovered it during their frenzied escape from the prison planet of Kessel. That was the downfall of the Maw Instillation. Eventually it was located and destroyed by the New Republic.  
And so the stable island that had sheltered the great minds of the empire lay dormant...until a new need was found for the fortress. Its remote location, secrecy and easily defendable position meant that it was perfect for the new inhabitants, weapons far more deadly than the Empire had ever thought to create.  
The Next Generation of Spartans.  
  
The Master Chief sat in the padded seat of the shuttle craft. The shuttle bucked and shifted erratically within the small 'tunnel' of canceled out gravitational forces within the Maw Cluster. It made him rather uneasy to realize that he was flying into the heart of a cluster of black holes, through a passage that if the pilot veered off course by millimeters, they could be sucked into the even horizon of a black hole.  
Either that or he was actually disturbed about the fact that after a year he was finally getting a chance to meet the soldiers he was in command off. Not that John liked waiting for so long before he even met the first crop of new Spartans. But he'd been busy fighting the Covenant, and it didn't seem prudent to see a bunch of rag-tag Special Forces officers that hadn't even worked together if their lives depended on it.  
Now...now they were Spartans. At least that's what the training academy officers had said.  
Now John, Spartan -117, Supreme commander of the SPARTAN forces was getting the chance to see them.  
Officially John had the equivalent rank of a Naval Admiral and was overall commander of the relatively young Spartan branch. But he still retained the rank of Master Chief out of habit, but was officially regarded as 'Commander' and was at the top of the Spartan command structure.  
Owing to the organization of the Spartans, they had a new ranking system all their own. Basically they only had a handful of ranks it was patterned on the X-Com system. Rookie, Squaddie, Sergeant, Captain, Colonel, Commander. Those were the only ranks in the Spartans these days.  
So right now Commander – 117 was waiting for the shuttle to land and deposit him at his new base of operations. He sat still, despite his unease and the bumpy flight, his gaze shifting to look out the front view port of the Lambda Shuttle. Unrepentantly the cloud of brilliant stellar gasses dissipated and the view of the training facility was laid out before him.  
It looked extremely odd. A hybrid form of artificial space stations and constructs, it sat dead center of the Maw Cluster's safe zone. Around it, rings of planetoids and defense platforms rested. Small craft flew amongst the cluttered center of the system.  
"This is Lambda shuttle, A-34-2-B, sending authorization codes." The pilot said.  
"Affirmative, welcome to the Maw." The controller replied. The Shuttle flew on through the multiple layers of defenses and protective forces. The Spartans were being defended with as much firepower as possible. Not that anyone would dare attack the home base of the most frightening, toughest hombres in the universe.  
But nobody wanted to see that nest of Spartans wiped out.  
"Proceed to docking-bay Prime for landing." The traffic controller said. John noted that the turrets on the weapons platforms pivoted on their mounts, aiming their formidable destructive forces at the shuttle. The veteran Spartan didn't bother being unnerved, that amount of firepower directed at this shuttle would mean he'd be dead before he could blink.  
But the weapons emplacements merely tracked.  
The shuttle flew on into the face of the massive conflagration of structures. John had been briefed on how large and intricate the station was, he just didn't gasp how large it was.  
He'd seen the specifications and this station could swallow the sheer size of an Imperial Super Star Destroyer. It was big enough to have its own gravitational field. The interconnected station platforms were said to house every single manufacturing and production facility that the Spartans needed. Along with their own Research and Development labs and workshops for redesign and manufacture of what the Spartans needed. The designers had boasted that the Spartan base had the training facilities that could simulate any kind of battle or combat condition known to sentient beings.  
From bar fights in Hong Kong to space borne boarding operations in the gravitational pull of a black hole, they could simulate and train in it. John had been slightly disbelieving at that pronouncement, but considering some of the technology that he'd seen in the past year he'd come to believe that the dead could be brought back to life.  
He'd seen it done on more than one occasion.  
Slowly, the shuttle craft made a slow arch into the bay. It passed through unseen energy shields and barriers that kept the air in and the vacuum out. John didn't doubt the pilots skill in the least, but considering that he was going into the unknown right now he couldn't help but be uneasy.  
He was about to find out whether the new Sentient Coalition 'Spartans' were anything even remotely as good as his Spartans.  
The Shuttle was expertly flown into the bay and came into a low hover over the mirror finished deck plating and landing markings. The Shuttle hovered and settled down onto the deck with a muffled thump.  
"We've landed Commander; you are free to disembark the craft." The pilot said.  
John nodded and stood. The ramp set beneath the pilots seats descended and rested on the deck. John took a breath of the stations air and marched down the ramp.  
He'd expected a greeting committee. Of course, he was a ranking officer now and it was only going to be assumed. Maybe an honor guard perhaps. A few troopers that were it in his mind, he really didn't think he was going to get more than that.  
Not one hundred, fully armored Spartans standing stiff and at precise attention on either side of the walk.  
"ATTENTION ON THE DECK!" A voice shouted. As one the armored soldiers stiffened and saluted in unison. The soft, muted sounds in the echoed slightly. John took the display in stride. He saluted and marched straight down the center of the formation to the blast door on the opposite side. As he passed each soldier the finished their salute and resumed their stances of attention.  
John covered the distance and walked through the open blast door and through the airlock.  
"HONOR GUARD, AT EASE!" Another voice shouted.  
John stepped through the airlock and was greeted by several figures that he did recognize. Spartans -104, -058, and -043. Fred, Linda and Will; the last of the original Spartans.  
"Good to see you Commander." Linda said and saluted in unison with Will and Fred.  
John returned the salute.  
"Good to see you as well. Tell me, I thought that at most there were twenty seven of us. And there are two hundred soldiers in MLJINOR out there." John said glancing around through the blast door. And saw that the other soldiers had disappeared.  
"They're real, sir. We haven't spent the past twenty years sitting around doing nothing." Fred said. John looked back, an eyebrow raised.  
"Twenty years? You were sent here a year ago weren't you?" John asked skeptically.  
"Thanks to a little Asguard device, yes sir." Will said.  
"Yes sir, you'll have to meet the command staff sir." Linda said and motioned for him to follow along. John obeyed and they marched down the corridor towards a recessed alcove. John noted that the equipment was that of a Federation Transporter.  
"The place is so big that walking isn't really practical." Linda said as they stepped into the alcove. In a few moments the transporter initialized and they were moved from a hallway into another hallway that seemed to be just as featureless. Linda set off again and John trailed along with Will and Fred. After a short walk then emerged in another, larger hall.  
"Sir, this is the head of our training operations." Linda said and motioned to a soldier standing before them. He was wearing a suit of MLJINOR armor without the helmet. His hard features and gaze seemed to overshadow a deadliness that would have been tangible, even without the high tech armor.  
"Spartan Sergeant -2401 Zim sir." The trooper said with a crisp salute. John returned the salute automatically.  
"Good to meet you Sergeant." John said.  
"The pleasure is mind sir."  
"So, tell me about how you're training the next generation of Spartans." John said.  
"Yes sir." Zim said and nodded. He turned and started to walk along beside John. Will, Linda and Fred followed along at a decent pace.  
"As you are aware sir, your own recruitment was much different than any used by a military group. Recruitment at a young age by selecting specific genetic markers is not exactly feasible in this circumstance. Considering the risks involved and negative opinion if it were to become public." Zim said. John thought back to long ago, when he was 'selected' for the Spartans, but brought his mind back to the here and now very quickly.  
"Due to that fact, we've set up our recruitment system to select the most qualified candidates from current Special Forces units. Of course, we don't take green recruits. At the minium, a soldier has served 10 years regular military and 10 years in the Special Forces before we even consider him. This allows us to have a recruit base that already knows combat and conflict, and knows how to kill. Otherwise we face the prospect of 'conditioning' our soldiers to kill." Zim said.  
"The intent of the 'new' Spartans was to take combat capable soldiers and augment their sizable abilities with another training regime. The concept of building up an individuals skills from square one into a superior fighting machine isn't entirely prudent." Zim continued.  
"Really Sergeant?" John asked, he didn't find the entire training regime and program that had forged him to be a 'not entirely prudent' system.  
"Sir, you do have over twenty five years of field experience. Some soldiers that are selected have that much to start with. No insult to your own program Commander, but we've taken a different approach." Zim countered.  
"Please explain. If you could be so kind." John said.  
"Of course sir. Two of the inherent difficulties with recruiting children is that you have to teach them everything. They have no real base skills. Of course, this does mean that you can teach them to fight and learn only what you want them to learn. But this also means that social skills, learned knowledge, practical life skills, and others are all left by the wayside. You should know this yourself sir, Spartans of your breed aren't exactly easy to get along with, or interact easily with other soldiers. Granted, that is acceptable given the Spartans status in the UNSC military. But when you need to interact with other soldiers in combat it makes it much more difficult. You were never in combat with them and you begin to underestimate their capabilities." Zim said. John was silent, accepting the matter-of-fact way that the Sergeant was talking to him.  
"Second, they have to grow up. Recruiting a six year old to fight means that you have to wait at least twelve years before they could fight in combat. That means that you have to wait that long before you can create an effective fighting force. Although, with the technology available, we can cut that time to a very miniscule amount in 'Real time'." Zim said.  
"Tell me about how you train them Sergeant." John asked. Zim nodded.  
"Ten year training program. We've designed it to work in different stages, each with their own goals. Stage one. We break them down."  
"Sergeant?"  
  
"While they are the best that the universe has to offer, it's integral that we set them all on the same level, sir. That is one of the more unfortunate points in recruiting veteran Special Forces operatives. They tend to have an over inflated opinion of themselves. Our goal is to pick apart them all and reduce them to an equal level. Many of the military groups in the Coalition have entirely different training and military philosophies. We want to strip away the arrogance and self assuredness to make them willing to be forged into Spartans."  
"There are two main elements to the first two years of training. Mental and physical conditioning, we aim to push the recruits to their limits and far beyond them. We have physical drills in place that are capable of breaking a Wookiee. Physical stamina drills that begin with 30- 40 mile endurance runs with one hundred pound weights, that's starting on the first day of training. We make it a regular habit of sending recruits on snap drills and runs that are twice as long. Ten different severe exposure drills are carried out during the first year alone. These vary from survival on the desert world of Tatooine for a week, to the swamps of Dagobah, even the icy hell of Hoth; it's snap notice when the troops get sent on these drills with minimal survival gear. We try not to keep them in one for too long." Zim said with a shrug.  
"How can so many troopers be sent on these drills for such long periods of time, and manage to maintain secrecy?" John asked.  
"That's thanks to the Federation sir. Thanks to their Holodeck technology, we can simulate an infinite number of training conditions and military situations. That way, we don't have to construct permanent training courses for these drills. We can simply program in what we want."  
"Ah, please continue."  
"The Mental phase of the training is a strict educational program. We beat the information into the troopers. The goal is to make sure that they know something about everything, and everything about a few things." Zim said with a half smile.  
"Universal history is a big one. Our objective is to make the recruits capable of operating in any culture or group in the entire Sentient Coalition with ease with that one. A large cadre of information is fed into the troopers. Technology, Philosophy, Languages, History, Tactics, Diplomacy, it's a very extensive list of information that gets fed into them. And we make sure they know everything that we force them to learn." Zim said.  
"And that's just the first two years. Of our initial selection of five thousand troopers, we lose a fifth to various reasons..." Zim said.  
"Deaths?" John asked.  
"No, not a single recruit has ever died in this instillation. It's often joked that it would take a miracle to die here. Most wash out with various...reasons. They mainly snap under the stress that comes from all the drills. Some try to run." Zim said. John paused. The thought that veteran Special Forces soldiers would try to escape was testimony to the truly powerful efforts to break new troopers.  
Zim walked through one door and they emerged in a massive 'room'. It had to be because they couldn't have gone outside a space station. It was an outdoor arena that had a devilish looking obstacle ceruse in the center. Spiked pits, razor wire fencing, a whole slew of deadly implements that appeared to be aimed at killing any recruits. Along the sides of this course were nests of what looked like instructors with repeating blasters.  
  
John watched as a trooper started across the course. Lines of crimson blaster fire traced towards the human as he ran full tilt through the course. He leapt and climbed over ten foot high walls. Climbed cargo nets and ran over balance beams that dangled over forests of spikes. He crawled beneath razor wire as blaster fire kicked up mud and dirt around him. He jumped through the air and sprinted across open ground, blaster fire zeroing in on him as he ran. About five feet from the finish line he made a mad dive through the air and was caught in the side by a blaster bolt.  
The soldier dropped, howling in pain...then the rest of the repeaters zeroed in and the screaming stopped. A pair of troopers with medic arm bands ran forward and picked up the body.  
"What is the meaning of this, Sergeant?" John growled the rage in his voice building. They'd just killed a soldier in training, and had been trying their hardest to do it.  
"Commander, I said before that it would take a miracle for you to die here. That soldier will be back in combat before the end of the week." Zim countered.  
"He looks dead to me." John snarled.  
"Well, he is sir." Zim replied.  
"Then how do you expect him to be back in combat next week?" John countered.  
"Sir, the technology that we have available is far beyond any that the UNSC possessed. We have not permanently lost a single soldier that has come here. We have had soldiers leave and wash out, but not a single fatality has ever occurred that was not corrected." Zim said.  
"I take it you'd care to explain?" John asked.  
"Perhaps medical could do so sir, I'm just an instructor." Zim countered.  
John nodded slowly and watched a towering wookiee start running the course. The giant furred warrior simply shrugged of the few blaster bolts that hit him as he ran. John nodded slightly knowing that the towering form of the Wookiee wouldn't be easy to take down. He glanced over as one of the repeaters stopped firing. The gunner stood up holding a boxy weapon and fired. The contrail of smoke from the RPG-7 trailed behind the high explosive projectile. The Wookiee ducked and dove over the finish line.  
"That's the first phase. The second is when we truly begin to teach them how to fight." Zim said leading John out of the arena room.  
"I thought you said the reason you recruited veterans was that they know how to fight?" John asked.  
"They know how to fight of course...just not well enough." Zim said. He walked across the long hall and into another room.  
"We've developed a curriculum that trains recruits to be familiar and capable with any weapon in use by any member of the sentient coalition. From an MA5B assault rifle and M41A2 Pulse rifle, all the way to a Human Alliance Fusion rifle or Tripod Screamer cannon. We've aimed at making sure every soldier is fully versed in the operation, care and manufacture of any weapon that they could possibly come across in their combat operations. That's to ensure the ultimate flexibility in combat." Zim said.  
"We also have melee and hand to hand training."  
"The Spartans have our own martial arts style that has been developed. It's a mixture of nearly every form of martial arts that we had input on, and the objective was to allow for complete flexibility in combat. That means that every Spartan is much more lethal without their weapons. And along the martial arts vein, we've set up a significant melee weapons training program. Every trooper receives grounding with a wide variety of melee weapons. From Bat'leth's to Lightsabers, we've given troopers a good understanding of how to properly use anything they've come across and how to improvise."  
  
"Also, in addition to our own forms of Martial Arts and general grounding with melee weapons, every soldier selects their own martial art form for study and their own melee weapon to become their personal weapon. We've done this to encourage a greater range of focus and discipline for our troops." Zim said and led John through another blast door and into what looked like a Japanese dojo, complete with rice paper walls, and a view of mountains through the windows at the far end.  
Within the room were about fifty soldiers, paired off and dueling with melee weapons. John looked at the wide variety of troopers that were fighting. He could recognize Klingons, Rodians, Wookiees, Hybrids, and Humans.  
He couldn't pick out the diminutive aliens that looked very deadly, they had large, dark eyes and dark gray skin, a few of them wielded short, small knives. Despite their small stature and toy like weapons, they were doing more than holding their own against their opponents.  
John couldn't place the large aliens whose gray skin was covered in intricate tattoos. Their large dark eyes seemed to swallow up the light in the room. Their mouths were filled with needle sharp teeth. Beneath their skin coiled muscles bulged. They looked like popular culture's vision of aliens on steroids.  
He couldn't pick out the aliens that looked like seven foot tall bipedal tigers either.  
John watched a pair of warriors dueling. He looked at the blue tattooed alien and the shorter one fighting with a pair of blades. They wheeled and danced in a duel of death. The small glints of light as their blades flashed out and clashed between them. Even with his enhanced vision and senses, John could barely keep track of the nearly blurred movements.  
The larger alien lanced out with his curved, barbed blade, missing the smaller creatures' head by inches. The smaller alien ducked and brought it's blade up in a flurry of motion, stabbing deep into the alien's wrist. It must have been a nerve cluster, because the creature dropped its weapon when its hand went limp. The large alien growled and brought its other muscled arm down in a chopping motion against the side of the gray skinned creatures head.  
John watched the flurry of motion with muted awe. Those aliens were moving nearly as fast as Kelly could, and she was the fastest of any Spartan.  
"Noghri and Plyserians. Two of the more, combative alien races; we have a large number of Noghri soldiers in the Spartan program, their natural abilities are extremely useful." Zim said, noting the smaller of the whirling aliens. Its hand flashed out, claws bared and slicing through the tendons on the blue tattooed alien's leg.  
The Plyserian dropped, growling.  
"Halt!" An instructor called as the Noghri lunged towards the Plyserian's throat with his retrieved blade. The diminutive warrior halted and crouched. The Plyserian sat up and extended his hand. The Noghri shook it and helped his opponent stand. They hobbled off towards a pair of medics.  
"I'm glad to see they aren't driven to kill each other." John said coolly.  
"No, that's the instructor's job. We try to build that bond in the first phase. The instructors are the ones to loathe and fear, your fellow troopers are your lifeline, they help you survive and live in this hell." Zim said.  
John nodded.  
"The Combat phase is the overall training operations. It's very open and extremely vague. The object is to make them dangerous with anything that they could possibly come into contact with. The next phase is to make them lethal with their issue weapons. The Technical section will brief you on the new toys that the Spartans have." Zim added. John nodded again. He wasn't exactly pleased with the way that the new breed of Spartans were being trained, but he was willing to reserve judgment until he saw a demonstration of their skills.  
"The drill procedures are much the same, although now they operate in heavy battle suits. Basically MLJINOR armor that's underpowered for the sake of making the troopers familiar with the operations and actions in their armor. This phase is identical to phase one and two, they are folded together and that's about it. Phase three is where we decide how to form up the teams and units for their operations. This is the phase where we aim for teamwork and cohesion beyond that of comrades in arms. Phase three is where we attempt to build the family style of cohesion that your units had." Zim said.  
"A lot of drills center around both teamwork and team support. The drills and exercises attempt to gear the individual's reliance towards others and themselves, away from their nationality and military organizations. If we cannot achieve that, then the Spartans aren't the unified branch of the Sentient Coalition that we need them to be." Zim said.  
"That's the bulk of the physical training. After that, there is a lull in which their physical augmentations are added and they adjust to that. We also fit them for their armor and begin to work on their individual weapons and experience skills. This is also where the final, general familiarization phase is carried out. Troopers are given the last overall series of drills and excurses to make the soldiers into well grounded troopers with any other equipment they might use. When we're done, they can pilot a scorpion tank or an AT-AT with equal ease. They can operate anything from a Covenant Banshee to a Super Star Destroyer." Zim said.  
"Could I see a demonstration Sergeant?" John finaly asked.  
Zim glanced down slightly, and looked up. He nodded.  
"This way sir." Zim said and pointed to a blast door across from them. John followed once more.  
As they walked by, one of the many blast doors opened next to them and four soldiers stumbled out of the door. They all were swathed in light tan and light brown camouflage, denotating the desert environment they were training in. The soldier at the front looked like a human but was immensely strong, his huge form hauling another soldier on his back, judging from the strength that the soldier had, he was either Mandalorian, Cadian, Zeon or Amazonian. But whoever he was, he was pretty damn tough because there was deep red blood spilling out from a gash on his side.  
The trooper that was slung over his back was clearly a Klingon. A Klingon with a very eclectic vocabulary of profanities in a slew of different languages. This tirade of profanity was directed both at his teammates and the door that they had come through. As the huge humanoid trooper carried the Klingon by, John noted that one of the Klingon's arms was a bloody stump and pink oozed from it.  
John jerked back when the loud rapport of an automatic projectile weapon sounded in the corridor. He dodged left and saw that one soldier was firing back through the door they came through. The veteran Spartan observed the smooth features of the Elf as she handled the massive bulk of an archaic M249 SAW light machinegun with ease.  
Another form dove through the door and crouched with his back against the wall as he reloaded a pistol and kept firing. The Evon's dark purple skin and green dreadlock like hair was a sharp contrast to the light colors of the camouflage.  
"We're out, shut it!" The Evon shouted its voice shrill over the gunfire. The bulkhead doors ground shut and sealed. The four person squad breathed a sigh of relief.  
"Alright, let's get to medical." The first soldier said, still holding the Klingon aloft. The Agitated warrior kept swearing.  
"No, by Mandalore you are getting to be a pain." The soldier said as they walked off. The entire squad looked very beleaguered and on closer inspection it was easy to tell they'd been on mission for a long time. They stepped into what was a control room of some kind. Large flat panel screens lining the walls showed various views of a European castle. The stone hallways were lined with a mixture of torches and electric lights, making an odd contrast of old and new.  
On one screen a patrol of men in steel gray uniforms marched along with assault rifles.  
"This is our training sim 'Wolfenstine' it's based on a computer game that one of the programmers has. The opposition is quite intelligent, and it does give our troopers a good exercise against opponents with tangible weapons."  
"Why not the Covenant?" John asked, curious about the absence of any covenant opposition.  
"The Covenant isn't going to be the only opponent that we fight, Commander." Zim said. John glanced at the other human, but looked back at the displays.  
"Who are we watching?" John asked as he watched the patrols marching through the screens. All he saw were humans in Wermacht uniforms and carrying MP-44's. No signs of any opposition.  
"Troopers Mendoo -5631, Teduntixtuitya -83523, Calarbrach -9924, and Timothy – 03425. One Rodian, one Plysserian, one Noghri, and one Human. They work well together." Zim said. John watched the displays, knowing that any aliens would be rather easy to pick out.  
"Their locations are on the map." Zim said and pointed to a hologramatic map that represtned the four Spartan troopers on a 3D map of the castle. One orange figure was climbing up the green framed castle. The tag on the figure read Mendoo -5631.  
Along one wall, the camera changed to show a white garbed form climbing up a sheer expanse of icy stone. A bolt action mauser was slung over his back along with several grenades and ammunition. Despite the weight, the surface and his bulky clothing, he climbed easily.  
John looked at the map and saw four red figures representing opponents. The Rodian climbed and paused just under the lip of the battlement. The four soldiers were huddled around a small stove on one side. The Rodian grasped an outcropped rock and reached into its white camouflage. It produced a wicked looking bladed weapon. The climber paused for one moment.  
Then lifted himself over the lip of the battlement and in a high arc with one arm without effort. The rodian sailed through the air and landed in a slashing, stabbing fury. Within moments the soldiers were lying on the stones, dead. The Rodian ducked down and wiped the blood from his blade. Then he unslung the rifle and took up a firing position. His vantage point looked down on the main courtyard of the castle; there would be no escaping any within his line of sight.  
  
Within the castle, a man in the deep black uniform of an SS Colonel marched through the cold halls. His form was crisp and directed, and he looked like a man not to trifle with. Timothy -03425, the man with the affinity for disguise and concealment.  
"Heil!" He shouted as he reached the pair of guards that stood before the small gate to the dungeons.  
"Heil!" They echoed quickly.  
"I am Colonel Von stumm, here to interrogate the prisoner!" Timothy said in crisp German.  
"Jawhol herr Colonel." The guards echoed and stood aside. Timothy stepped through, checked the other side of the gate, and deciding it was clear, turned around.  
"Guards." Timothy said, making the pair turn.  
"Yes Colonel?" They asked.  
"Watch behind you."  
But they didn't have a chance to turn; Calarbrach was behind them in a second. The short Noghri's blades cutting deep into the upper spine of each soldier, killing them before they could even twitch in response. With practiced ease, he spun each soldier and slumped them against the wall in a way to make them look like they had slumped off asleep.  
Calarbrach followed along, a shadow in Timothy's wake.  
  
The only entry or exit from 'Castle Wolfenstein' for the exercise was a single cable car station that led down the mountain to a small town. If the team were to escape from the castle it had to be secured.  
That was where Teduntixtuitya -83523 came in.  
The blue tattooed Plysserian clung to the underside of the small cable car as it made its way up from the small village far below. Beneath the 'aquired' German winter uniform, the alien's corded muscles were bulging out with the effort of clinging to the underside of the cable car. It had been fifteen minutes, and the three hundred pounds of Plysserian warrior was augmented by fifty pounds of gear. But the elite warrior showed no sign of fatigue as he held firm on the underside of the wind blown steel box.  
As the small cable car neared the end of its accent, the warrior carefully prepped himself for the flurry of combat that he would be faced with. An unknown number of guards, wielding capable weapons, and he had minimal arms available to utilize.  
No sweat, all he'd have to do was climb out from under the cable car, make his way through the cave and eliminate all opposition, securing it for the other troopers to exfiltrate the cargo.  
No problem.  
Still dangling beneath the bottom of the cable car, his fingers and boots wedged in the small metal lip around the bottom, his spine pressed against the bottom of the car...he waited for the signal.  
  
Timothy walked with the style and precision that a member of the Death's Head SS would march. As though he were on a mission of the utmost importance. He walked through the shadowed, ancient halls of the castle, deeper and deeper within the citadel. Behind him, Calarbrach followed his presence unknown to anyone but the shadows.  
The human in the SS uniform did an exemplary job of distracting the guards, or simply marching by them. No one would dare challenge the presence of the SS.  
Well, another SS officer perhaps.  
"Halt, herr Colonel." The commander of a small detachment of guards said. He too wore the dress black uniform of the SS. But unlike Timothy, he had a guard behind him manning an MG-42 machinegun.  
"What is it?" Timothy asked, his voice filled with the perfect amount of disdain and accusation.  
"Your authorization Colonel?" The guard said. Timothy noted seven soldiers standing in the room, along with the commander, and the two manning the machinegun.  
Easy.  
Timothy didn't even speak, instead, he lashed out in a flurry of motion that sent is hands and feet smashing into vital points on his target's body. In a moment, the guard dropped to the stone floor, dead, and without a single sound. As the trooper fell, Timothy plucked the FG-42 paratrooper rifle out of the air and leveled it at the trio of guards standing on one side of the room. He depressed the trigger and emptied the 32 round box magazine into them before they could draw their weapons.  
As Timothy fired, the other three soldiers and the machinegun crew moved to kill the wolf in SS clothing. But the Machingun crew wasn't going to get off too many rounds.  
Calarbrach moved as fast as the wind and as silent as death incarnate. How he had made it through the passage undetected, the gunners would never know. How he got behind them so swiftly, they would never speculate. How they were being killed, they would understand all too well.  
Each one was gutted very efficiently by the sleek form of a Noghri assassin's blade slicing through the flesh of their necks and severing arteries, nerve clusters and wing passages before they could move. They slumped back against the wall, and were not an issue for the Noghri.  
The small, clawed hands of the alien warrior reached out to the MG-42 and pivoted it towards the remaining clot of soldiers. They scrambled for a moment before the Noghri warrior threaded his clawed finger into the trigger guard and squeezed. The torrent of shells ripped through the soldiers and they fell.  
"I'm going for the cargo. Cover the entrance." Timothy said and Calarbrach nodded from behind his post at the MG-42. Timothy retrieved an FG-42 and shed the SS uniform's shirt. He headed down the stone corridor and searched for their quarry, what they'd been told was an Allied commando.  
  
Mendoo was slowly counting in his head. Over and over again to one thousand, that's how he had been keeping track of the time since these human watches weren't accurate enough. They'd had it all planned out, he'd managed the climb in exactly the right amount of time, and if all went according to the plan, he should start his phase in...  
Three...  
Mendoo lowered his bulbous black eye to the scope of the rifle. It wasn't designed to accommodate his form properly, but the veteran New Republic Special Forces soldier managed. The small tower that he had positioned himself on was directly opposite the communications tower for the castle. And the stained glass window gave him the perfect angle on the tower.  
Two...  
Mendoo aimed for a small cable that ran from the corner of the window to the large transmission tower next to it. If he hit that cable, then the radio would be knocked out.  
One...  
Mendoo focused his mind and aimed. He had one shot.  
Fire...  
Mendoo's finger squeezed the trigger and the rifle spoke once. Without pausing to see if he had hit the cable, he swung the rifle around to the window. He worked the normaly clumsy mauser's bolt with ease and sighted in on the window, just as one of the soldiers inside looked out. A single 7.92mm round crashed through the window and into his skull.  
Mendoo released the rifle and grabbed for the improvised explosive that he had made with a few grenades. He'd taped ten explosive heads around a single potato masher grenade and was pretty sure that they would do what he wanted.  
Without standing up, Mendoo tossed the explosive in an arch, straight through the shattered window. He rolled to one side behind a stout stone rampart just as the grenade detonated.  
The Rodian didn't admire his handiwork. He set his hands on the mauser again and aimed down into the courtyard. He would have to make sure none of the garrison decided to poke their heads out.  
  
The alien soldier had been hanging on the underside of the cable car for half an hour in the biting wind and conditions. None of the German cold weather gear adequately fit him so he had been forced to improvise. But he hadn't improvised too effectively. Cold wind cut into him and sapped his will to hang on, but he waited. He had a mission to accomplish, and there wasn't going to be any room for error.  
Teduntixtuitya, or 'teddy' as his team mates called him, heard the loud explosion that was his 'signal'. Now he was to clear out the cable car landing.  
With skill that would have made an Olympic gymnast jealous, he lowered himself down so that he dangled from the small lip at the bottom of the car. With a silent swing, he grabbed the edge of the concrete that made up the 'dock' for the cable car and held onto the much firmer concrete.  
As softly as he could, Teddy took a few deep breaths and pulled himself over the edge. He had pulled himself up into a small covered area that was in front of the control room. As he crouched on the ledge that was scant inches wide he could hear the confused conversations in German, and the rhythmic sound of rifle fire in the courtyard.  
Teddy twisted his alien features into a grim 'smile', which meant that all he was doing was revealing the rows of predatory teeth that were normally concealed.  
Careful not to make any noise he unfastened the pair of sub- machineguns that he had appropriated. Although little more than pistols to the large alien, he was well aware of the capabilities of the German weapons. Teddy didn't want his prey alerted to his presence until it was too late.  
As the alien finished readying his weapons he could hear the guards in the cable car room debating whether or not they should go out and investigate.  
They didn't get the chance as a grenade skidded across the floor and smacked into the boot of one of the soldiers.  
He glanced down just as the explosive went off and scattered him, and the other three men he was talking too across the room. Teduntixtuitya rose up, his weapons out at arms length and marching through the room like an action movie star. But the bullets were deadly if they hit.  
But they weren't hitting, they weren't even shooting. The guards were dazed by the grenade, the surprise, and the figure that was doing the shooting. No one got a shot off as the alien marched through and dispatched them with an extremely thorough job.  
Teddy spun as a door off to one side creaked open and two more soldiers entered the room. The plysserian spun and fired a fraction of a second too late. The FG-42's the soldiers carried spat out a burst of fire and the rounds slammed into Teddy's muscled side.  
The warrior grunted and fell over, taking cover behind a small wall. The alien fought to breathe properly through the pain that was radiating from his side. He couldn't see straight, but he could feel.  
And from what he felt, he'd caught four rounds in the lower right portion of his torso, puncturing his equivalent of a liver and his lung. Already he could feel the gurgling as he breathed.  
Gritting his sharp teeth he reached down and pressed hard on the wound, hoping he wouldn't black out. He still had a mission to accomplish. Working his mind around the pain he reached down for one of the grenades that were tucked into his belt. He pulled it out and primed it.  
With a hiss of pain he chucked it over the wall and slouched back, the effort of lobbing the small device seemingly too much for his body to bear. He bucked his head at the explosion and crawled back up the low wall.  
The room was secure.  
Messy, but secure.  
Teddy pulled his body upright again and fashioned a bandage out of a few belts and gray tunics. Then he retrieved sub-machinegun and went to the door that led into the courtyard.  
  
Timothy pulled the dazed soldier along the dungeon passage. The soldier wasn't entirely there, and Timothy knew that was a liability. No matter how good the soldier was, even in peak form he would have been a liability.  
Up ahead, the bright orange muzzle flare from the MG-42 illuminated Calarbrach as he fired long methodical bursts down the hall. From beyond the small devastated security point and slightly beneath the din of the fire, Timothy could place others further along.  
Calarbrach wasn't firing for just any reason. They were coming.  
Timothy was about to call out when the form of a grenade flew down the corridor and bounced off the wall behind the sandbagged gun emplacement. Several more of the grenades followed along behind it.  
Calarbrach dove from behind the cover and took shelter deeper down the passage. Timothy shoved the soldier behind an outcropping of stone and leapt for his own small piece of cover in the nick of time. With a crack the grenades went off and the pressure wave smacked into him.  
He blinked twice. Once he was looking down the hall, the next, he was looking up at rifle muzzles.  
"Up! Up!" Several voices cried in unison. Timothy groaned and began formulating ways to take down all...nine of them in one move.  
Nothing came to mind.  
Well, getting up...  
Timothy grunted and slowly sat up mentally checking for any serious injuries. The most pressing was a sliver of stone that had lodged itself into his neck. The jagged masonry was close enough that he could feel it when his heart beat and pressed against his jugular. Tracing a mental path, he figured that the stone shard had pushed his right coratic artery to one side, knocked his windpipe out of the way and nestled itself against his spinal column between the C3 and C4 vertebra, before jabbing out the other side.  
He reached up to remove it, but saw the weapons get that much closer to him. Timothy struck that one down as a bad idea.  
He was about to make some kind of comment when movement near the arched stone ceiling caught his attention. He only spared a glance but he knew exactly who that was.  
The small Noghri was moving over the stones like a spider, seemingly able to defy gravity as he crawled along in the darkened shadows. None of the soldiers spotted him as he moved along. Timothy chuckled slightly. The soldiers pressed in closer.  
Calarbrach dropped from the ceiling, his knives catching the scant light in the corridor and glinting.  
The first trooper went down win a stab wound to the back of his neck and the pommel of a dagger smashing into his throat. The Noghri spun and slammed his other blade into another soldier's chest down to the hilt, effectively turning the soldier's heart into two rather ineffective pieces.  
Calarbrach turned and brought his heel into the kneecap of another guard and caved it in backwards. He sprung up and used the soldier's broken knee for leverage and enough height to dig his clawed foot into the man's face. With deadly grace the Noghri spun in the air and snatched the assault rifle from the man's dying grasp and leveled it at the other soldiers as he flew.  
The flying alien fired and cut down four of the soldiers with the full magazine. Calarbrach hurled the empty weapon at another trooper and struck him in the throat, collapsing the man's windpipe. The soldier pitched back as Calarbrach finished the last guard with his knife.  
The entire fight had taken seconds.  
"Come on." Calarbrach said hauling the soldier and Timothy to their feet without any effort. Timothy nodded and moved down the hall behind Calarbrach, ignoring the sliver of stone still protruding from his neck.  
  
Mendoo was relived when he saw three forms running out of one of the heavy wooden archways that surrounded the courtyard. The fact that Timothy, Calarbrach and their cargo were on the move was a very good thing. The Rodian fired off the rest of his ammunition with lethal effect and dropped the mauser without thought. He removed a coiled rope from his shoulder and bound two of the corpses together that shared the roof top with him. Taking a moment to wedge the bodies against a parapet and hurled his form over towers edge.  
The soldier was tough, he'd been doing this kind of thing back in the swamps of Rodia, and with the New Republic Special Forces for over thirty years before he'd been chosen for the Spartan program. But dropping down an icy stone wall, grasping a thin rope that was slicing the skin away from your bones was enough to break someone's concentration.  
Mendoo winced.  
He landed softly on the new fallen snow of the courtyard and scooped up an FG-42 as he ran along. The alien checked the weapon and drew the bolt on the fly, ignoring his blood that made the contacts slick.  
"We're ahead of schedule." Timothy said. As he ran, their target carried along beside him. Calarbrach ran along in front of them.  
"You want to take a break?" Mendoo replied. Timothy shook his head and ran on.  
They darted into a corridor and down a flight of stone stairs. Ahead, Teddy glanced around a corner.  
The Plysserian nodded and gestured for them to run faster.  
  
John watched the entire display from within the small mission control room. He nodded slightly.  
'Satisfactory sir?" Zim asked. John nodded.  
"That's the extent of the training, although these soldiers are in the early stages you can see the cohesion and drive that we've impressed upon them." Zim said.  
"I'd like to hear more about the augmentations and the upgrades to MLJINOR Sergeant." John asked.  
"I'm not the one to explain sir. I can transfer you over to the technical section, they're much in the field than I am." Zim said with a smile. John nodded again.  
"Well then Sergeant, thank you for your time." John said. Zim saluted and called for a transport into the technical section.  
  
No matter how many times John was transported, whether it was through a Forerunner transport net, a Federation Transporter, or a Human Alliance Matter Conveyer, he never liked it. That change in orientation and view in a split second was surreal and unnerving...  
The tough, lethal form of Zim in MLJINOR was replaced by the much less intimidating form of a man in a white lab coat. That was something of a radical change.  
"Greetings Comander. I'm Doctor Gary Savage." The man in the coat said with a smile.  
"Greetings Doctor." John said and glanced about.  
Instead of the stark armored passages of the training area, stretching off into oblivion with featureless blast doors and filled with troopers walking, the R&D department seemed to be much more open.  
The hall was open and vaulted much like a cathedral. High above, either some form of transparent material or force shields gave a view outwards to the whirling gasses and dusts of the maw cluster as they were sucked into oblivion. Off to the sides, a transparent material gave a clear view into the multitude of laboratories and experiment chambers on the level.  
Whereas the combat training section had the feel of a bunker, the R&D department seemed to stretch on without end in sight. John could see thousands of researchers in the neatly divided off areas. John couldn't even begin to place some of the equipment that they were working with.  
"It's a pleasure to finaly meet the Spartan that we've heard so much about." Dr. Savage said.  
"Is that correct doctor?"  
"Oh yes, much of the problems and concerns that you poised with your original MLJINOR armor, body augmentations and primitive artificial intelligence have given us the information we need to guide the technical aspects of the Spartan program to better suit your needs."  
"I see." John said.  
"Why, yes of course commander. I suppose you want to see the technical aspects of the Spartan Program since Sergeant Zim explained the physical aspects?"  
"If you would be so kind doctor." John said. Dr. Savage nodded and gestured for the large warrior to follow. John did so and trailed the Doctor through a clear maze of passages, visually one could see out, but in reality they were walking through a maze of passages surrounding the labs.  
John also noted that unlike in the Combat section, there were guards in place. They all wore the featureless black molded armor of X-Com mercenaries. They stood at intervals in the clear tunnels and said nothing, their black tinted faceplates giving away no emotion or recognition. They did not salute as John walked by.  
"Now, while I am sure that the technology the UNSC used to augment you and create your armor was top of the line...it was not the safest method of augmentation." Dr. Savage said mildly.  
John thought that was understating the fact tremendously. Half the original recruits of the Spartan program either died or were permanently crippled during the process.  
"But I can assure you that the augmentation process we have now is vastly improved and much more effective, and exponentially safer than the...primitive, methods used on you and your comrades." Dr. Savage said as they passed through an entire squad of X-Com mercenaries and into a conference room.  
Several people were seated around the table that rested there.  
"Commander -117, May I introduce the paramount minds behind the technical aspects of the New Spartan Program." Dr. Savage said.  
"In charge of our Genetic and Cellular research is Lothar former head of the Asguard advanced genetic research programs dealing with genetic engineering." Dr. Savage said and pointed to a short, gray skinned Asguard that sat near the head of the table.  
"A pleasure Commander -117, your genetic patterns have been the target of much of my department's research." The Asguard researcher said with a nod.  
"Nanotechnological research and Development is headed up by Dr. Jiltix Sivion of the Human Alliance." Dr. Savage said and motioned to a Psilon seated in it's usual hovering chair assembly next to the Asguard.  
"Greetings Commander, I do hope you will indulge of my department's services at some point." The Psilon said with a wheeze.  
"In charge of armor development is X-Com head Personal Defensive Systems Researcher Vincent Wiemar," Dr. Savage said and nodded to a hybrid Human/Sectoid.  
"How you survived in that MLJINOR I shall never know. But we do have some much better equipment for you now." Weimar said with a shake of his head, a roll in his large black eyes and a smile.  
"And for simplicity's sake Dr. Asimov." Dr. Savage said and motioned to the nine feet of Saurian sitting at the table, sheathed in a white lab coat that made it seem almost comical.  
"Salutations. I do apologize, but my real name would take thirty minutes to properly pronounce." Dr. 'Asimov' said.  
"Weapons systems development is headed up by X-Com Armarments Designer Hector Renard,"  
"Greetings." A muscled and tanned human said with a smile that showed all white teeth.  
"Imperial General Felix Astartes,"  
"I greet you." The dark brown skinned Imperial officer said with a nod.  
"Human Alliance Weapons development Robot, K9353-I403534-LL45, Dr. Jager"  
The robot merely nodded its plated head.  
"and Federation Scientist Barry Justinian."  
"A pleasure Commander." The Federation scientist said.  
"Artificial Intelligence integration is lead by Dr. Cynosis of the Federation."  
The Blue uniformed scientist nodded.  
"Now, what would you like to know about first Commander? It's been pointed out that we can ramble on about our perspective fields for a very long time unless we have a goal." Dr. Savage said.  
"Tell me about how you augment my troops, start to finish." John said.  
"Of Course Commander. Researcher Lothar, would you care to begin?" Dr. Savage said. The Asguard nodded as Dr. Savage and John took their seats.  
"As you are aware, the HALO network and the Orion facet of the Forerunner Alliance engineered our perspective races to create the most effective races to fight a war against the 'Horde' the lengthy trial and error process involved various elements of our combined genetic codes to be altered, some in much more radical ways than others." Lothar said.  
"Of course, it has long been surmised that the 'human' physical form was the original template and all other races were designed as alterations and improvements to this original form." Dr. Sivion said.  
"Yes. Now, some species have much more physical alterations than others. Klingon Cardiovascular and musculature is incredibly beyond the human norm, giving them untold resilience and strength. Trianii physiology lends to enhanced strength and dexterity in combat. Saurian body build is immensely strong and even more resilient. I could go on. But there are also much more subtle alterations in genetic makeup. For instance, a Mandalorian and a baseline human are physiologically the same. But the Mandalorian has a much greater affinity towards combat and martial prowess."  
"Much of these inconsistencies can be explained by social and societal systems having an altering effect on the mindsets and ideals of a society that is basically human. Of course that is a deciding factor. Many of our cultures have a tradition of avoiding military conflict except when forced into such an event, but there are peoples who relish it. The Klingons and the Saurians being prominent examples of this social affinity towards combat."  
Lothar moved to the end of the table. As he did so, holograms sprung to life and hung in the air before them, John recognized the 3-D form of a DNA strand spinning in space.  
"The Asguard have not failed to notice the similarities in the Genetic codes of many species our research has yielded a series of genetic codes and altered DNA patterns which have exemplified superior warriors and soldiers. The Vault of Knowledge that was recovered on the UNSC Earth has shown that those who are superior soldiers are possessed of specific genetic codes."  
"While we had been working on a genetic sequence that would result in superior combat abilities for some time before contact with the people of Earth. Unfortunately, the war with the Replicators resulted in a minimizing of that research. After the people of Earth helped us turn the tide of the war against the Replicators, we reinstituted research. But unfortunately the minimal numbers diverse of races made any kind of breakthroughs nearly impossible due to the extremely time consuming nature of the research."  
"After the contact and creation of the Sentient Coalition, research was placed within the purview of the Spartan-SuperSoldier program. Thanks to separate and similar research programs located on other worlds, great progress has been made and we've achieved startling breakthroughs in this field." Lothar said and pointed to the DNA strand that hung in the air.  
"That is the finished genetic strand that we have created to fully magnify the abilities of the Spartans." Lothar said. Several points on the strand were illuminated.  
"The Genetic therapy has a multitude of effects. It's given soldiers an increased mental and sensory clarity, allowing increased reaction times and thought processes. The genetic formulae have given soldiers increased resistance to stress, fatigue, illness, and even sleep. The initial trial runs of the Gene therapy gave soldiers immunity to such highly infections diseases as Smallpox, Ebola, Plague and Flu without the noticeable recovery signs. They managed to postpone sleep for a time period of nearly two weeks without any measurable decrease in ability. Stress reactions were suppressed during cases of extreme duress. Mental fatigue was eliminated and synaptic processes were streamlined." Lothar said.  
"An enhanced DNA Retro Virus was used to introduce the Gene and bring about the change. There were no side effects for any that were exposed to the genome virus beyond minor flu like symptoms. The effects of the virus did cause sleep and enhanced hunger drive for approximately 24 hours after the end of Flu like symptoms. Genetic augmentation benefits manifested themselves after that point." Lothar said with a rough chronology.  
"Unfortunately, our attempts to stimulate more pronounced effects are not meeting with success. Certain attributes have been found to possess genetic triggers, but are not entirely based in genetic root causes." Lothar explained.  
"What would those be?" John asked.  
"There have been many documented cases of abnormal abilities manifested in otherwise baseline Human stock. Magical proficiency, Psi powers, ability to use the Force, 'New Type' traits, superpowers, 'mutants' with enhanced abilities, those types of manifestations. We've made strides in boosting the latent talents of normal humans but progress is slow. While the Sentient Machine Empire has developed processor systems that make it capable for constructs to manipulate magic, and sense and broadcast psi fields, creating the effect organically is difficult. The most we have been able to do is stimulate a minor psychic ability of heightened 'danger' sense and other minor beneficial combat abilities." Lothar said.  
"What sort of powers are you aiming to create?" John asked.  
"We did think that the Tamaranian Ability to project energy fields and destructive energy would be effective. The Kryptonian strength, flight ability and invulnerability that come from being exposed to yellow light are one of our goals. Even something so simple as the Tollan's massive intellect and research abilites would be a benefit." Lothar explained.  
"Thank you." John said.  
"This translates into the second phase. Nano-Augmentation." Dr. Savage said.  
"Commander." Dr. Sivion said and his chair rose off the floor, carrying his spindly body upwards.  
"The Human Alliance has been making wide spread use of nanotechnology for over seven millennia. It has been refined into a science that many of your cultures would Nanotech is used in everything from immunization and medicine, to military weapons and even consumer goods. Every citizen of the Human Alliance is injected with a nanological cocktail at birth which provides nearly perfect immunization from disease, anti aging abilities, constant medical attention and personal medical health. That factor has made the average life expectancy in the Human Alliance in the range of eight hundred years. Immortality drugs, cloning and other forms of longevity treatments mean that the average citizen has the possibility to live forever." Dr. Sivion said.  
"While this treatment program has been standard practice for eons in the Human Alliance, the concept of nanotechnology for some of your...lesser peoples...is relatively new. One of the factors we've been introducing has been the simple act of introducing this Nanological cocktail into the Spartan soldiers. That has increased combat abilities multifold."  
"A specific Nano process that we've developed is a full replacement of the subjects vascular system with a nanomachine soup. Replacing the blood of an individual with nanomachines would increase the combat abilities, stamina and survivability of Spartans exponentially." Dr. Sivion said.  
"Has that been implemented?" John asked.  
"No. We are still testing the concept. We are merely working with nano created systems inside the bodies of soldiers. A multiple layered series of augmentations helps to make the individual soldier much more formidable without their armor than the initial Spartan program." Dr. Sivion said. John noted the jab at his affinity for the MLJINOR armor but let it slide.  
"After being infused with the basic nano repair and support systems an extensive preparation process with gene therapy and minor nano remolding is undertaken on the subjects body this makes the entire process entirely safe for the host. There is still a notable percentage of the Human Alliance population that has an adverse reaction to Nano augmentation, and that is with the generations of immunity that has built up. We carry out the same process to 'harden' their systems for the augmentation process."  
"This hardening of the host system allows for the beginning of the augmentation process. I shall start at the cranium and work downwards with the augmentations. A series of augmentations are undertaken that weave within the skull areas of the host's brain. While this is different for all species, I shall base these of humanoid anatomy." Dr. Sivion said.  
"A neural interface unit is incorporated into the skull, it remotely allows the user to 'hack' into computer systems and interface with them with his mind. This means that a user can interact with the control systems of anything from a vehicle to a starship. The ability for them to hack the system is limited by their own skills however. The second mod that is incorporated into the cranial space of the host is a communications link. It has a fifty Astral Unit range and is capable of multi frequency encrypted two way communications. The user can speak with others just by thinking it properly. The third augmentation is an Aggressive defensive module. Simply put it is a system that sends a stream of nanites against inbound missiles and grenades that destroys them before they damage the user. It's rather simple, but effective."  
"After the cranial augmentations, I shall talk of the ocular modifications. The eye undergoes a series of nano augmentations that increase the effectiveness of a soldiers information gathering abilities in combat. Magnification of up to 100x, infrared, thermal, and night vision imaging is all collected within the ocular nerve and broadcast as a composite image to the brain. A microscopic processor is built behind the eye along the ocular nerve and incorporates an advanced IFF system and targeting module, distinguishing between friend and foe without thought. The visual enhancements also allow the host to see through sold material to a distance of 50m through sonar imaging and thermal scanning. It's extremely effective." Dr. Sivion said.  
"The enhancements to the musculature and skeletal system of the individual are rather simple by building micro fibers into the muscle system and nanoscale motors within the joint system. These allow the individual to lift weights up to two metric tons, run at speeds of almost 80mph and nanosecond reaction speeds."  
"The skin is augmented with a multilayer mesh underlay that is less than a millimeter thick, but provides ballistic, energy, EMP, and kinetic protection. Beneath this layer is a composite radar, thermal, and cloaking system making the agent nearly invisible to any form of detection. An invisible, invincible hunter." Dr. Sivion said with pride. John thought of the lethal efficiency of the Yautja guardians throughout the galaxy that he had run into.  
It was nice to know the Spartans be just as dangerous.  
"Vascular processes include the addition of filer systems within the lungs that make them capable of recycling oxygen and gases. This makes the survivability of the soldier within toxic, or negligible atmosphere environments much higher. Within the torso cavity is the basis for the regeneration system. It accelerates the growth process for tissues to a noticeable level. Plus allows the nanomachines within the body to access the cellular blueprints in the hosts DNA and rebuild limbs. Tests have shown that even after almost 50% annihilation of total tissue mass it is possible to regenerate the body parts lost." Dr Sivion said.  
"That concludes the nanological augmentation facet." Dr. Savage said with a nod. John was sitting there thinking about everything that he'd just taken in. The bodies of the New Spartans alone were vastly superior to anything that the UNSC's Spartan program had come up with. And apparently, with a 100% success rate, no deaths from medical treatments in this Spartan program.  
"Now, for the Computer systems integration technology." Dr. Savage said.  
"Thank you doctor." Dr. Cynosis said rising from the tables edge. The human wlaked to the end of the table and held up a small cylinder for John. He took it. It felt like a roll of coins and was about the size of his thumb, but bristled with small prongs and was a brightly shining silver.  
"What is this Doctor?" John asked slowly turning the cylinder over in his hands.  
"That is the core of the Sentient computer processor that is implanted into the spinal column of every soldier. It's capable of carrying the neural nets of a Sentient computer systems easily with a massive resource base for access by the host operator." Dr. Cyonsis said.  
"Much the same manner as Cortana rode in my neural lace." John said.  
"Exactly commander, except rather than a 'Smart' AI, it will be a Sentient essence that was chosen from the ranks of the Sentient Machine Military. Each one possessing over one hundred years of Sentient existence and double that worth of military intelligence and combat intelligence work. They're very useful." Dr. Cynosis said.  
"Correct me Doctor, but the UNSC is the only military organization that includes a neural linkup for it's soldiers."  
"Yes Commander. That means that it was necessary to create a procedure that allowed for widespread augmentation to be done. It's not exactly a non-invasive process. Between the base of the brain and the spinal column, we remove three inches of brain stem and insert the computer core in the gap created, they we use neuro surgery and nano therapy to fuse the nerves back into line. Through this process the host has the permanent linkup and capability to carry a sentient processor." Dr. Cynosis said.  
John thought of the first time that he had heard that Cortana would be a passenger in his own mind. He hadn't liked it then, but she had been exceptionally useful during the missions on HALO and elsewhere. But, if what he had read of Sentient Machine entities, they were far beyond Cortana in terms of skills and advancements; they could actually exist as their own beings.  
"Is there a possibility that the 'passanger' entity could take over the Trooper's body?" John asked, he'd had that concern with Cortana.  
"Well, yes Commander, but I must say that for a Sentient Machine, taking over an organic body is rather...degrading in their eyes." Dr. Cynosis said. Dr. Jager nodded his featureless sensor head.  
"The ancients shed their organic souls and created the Meklar, our forerunners before we truly moved onto a higher self perpetuating form. To control an organic's body would be a blasphemy against the ancient ones." Dr. Jager said vehemently.  
John nodded.  
"Besides that, there's little to the technical aspects of the systems." Dr. Cynosis said.  
"Thank you Doctor. That concludes the augmentation of the individual commander. I trust you would like to see the fruits of the labor put into the next generation of MLJINOR?" Dr. Savage asked.  
"Yes Doctor, I would." John said.  
Dr. Savage reached down and tapped a point in air. A small glowing hologram sprang to life. He hit a few more points in air and then the blue shimmer of a transporter sprang to life at the end of the table. John watched as the glow subsided, and in it's place rested a suit of MLJINOR armor.  
But...it wasn't his version of MLJINOR. Rather, it was different in subtle ways. The lower body glove wasn't straight black. It looked as though small threads of silver ran through it. The armor plating had a much brighter green coloring to them and instead of seeming to be straight and angular, they were rounded and curved...even interlocking like medieval plate armor in places. The faceplate wasn't gold tinted and a full face unit, instead a black 'T' cut through the helmet. John also noted that it seemed...smaller. No so much as being sized smaller, because Noghri Spartans at four feet tall wouldn't fit into Wookiee sized armor. But it looked more compact, lighter...  
"This is the MLJINOR-NextGen system. I'll turn this over to Researcher Wiemar and Dr. Asimov." Dr. Savage said.  
"Commander. I must be blunt and say that comparing this suit of armor to yours would be like trying to compare a wind powered Trireme used by the Ancient Greeks to an Annihilator Heavy assault transport. They both move soldiers from one place to another. That's it." Researcher Wiemar said.  
"Cosmeticaly, you can notice the distinct changes. But the alterations go far beyond those that you can detect. I'll work from the inside out, but Dr. Asimov's creation will have to be spoken of first. Dr.?" Weimar said and differed to the towering; reptilian form of the doctor stood and dominated the room.  
"The original problems of the MLJINOR-NextGen system were those faced by inhabitants of any suit of battle armor for extended combat periods. It does become very uncomfortable. Different methods have been proposed to combat this, but reequipping billions of soldiers with new armor is not cost effective for the Human Alliance. With the MLJINOR-NextGen, we could design the perfect system for soldiers." Dr. Asimov said as he reached the armor and removed the helmet unit.  
"Now, the inner layer." Asimov said and displayed the interior of the helmet to John. He couldn't exactly place what it was. The interior of the armor seemed to have a dull shine to it that made it seem moist or damp. But it was warm and pliant to the touch.  
"What is it?" John asked.  
"A bioengineered organism that forms a symbiosis with the wearer of the armor." Dr. Asimov said with a vicious smile.  
John looked at him apprehensively.  
"The main issue with soldiers is that in combat they respire, sweat and carry on other bodily functions, this makes for...issues... Handling all those material problems to allow for extended use of the armor would have been impractical, so instead, we created something to convert the byproducts of normal existence into something useful. That bio-body glove provides warmth, cooling, muscle and surface skin comfort and a secure layer to protect against outside contaminants of the armor integrity is breached. IT heals and maintains its functions through an intricate series of genetic and instinctual triggers within the host structure. That means that it will always work properly without having to worry about software and programming trouble, it automatically adapts to make the host as comfortable as possible."  
"Endurance testing using normal tactile and body suppression techniques for body armor top out the length of time served in armor without overwhelming distractions to be three to four days. The Bio-body glove has made that limitation nonexistent. So long as the organism continues to have a stream of power from the armor, it will exist. Even with suit power disabled, it is capable of forming a pure symbiotic relationship with the user and surviving, each sustaining the other." Dr. Asimov said.  
John nodded, understanding and not at all displeased with the idea. Even after years of working within his armor, it could become a problem to survive in it for extended periods.  
"Now, the technical aspects of the armor are more intricate than the biological aspects. But without the biological components, it is difficult to think that the user would be able to utilize the combat capabilities of the armor as fully as possible." Researcher Weimar said.  
"What do you mean?" John asked.  
"Well, the bio-body glove acts as an enhanced type of neural transmission unit. Much the same way as your neural link interfaces with your armor, the bio-body glove acts as that conduit." Dr. Asimov said.  
"Now. The first layer after the bio-body glove has been termed the 'inner' layer. It is a multi material composite of energy transfer units, power control systems and neural nets that make sure the armor moves as it should. This layer is the command and control layer, it's about two millimeters thin. Completely articulate and flexible allowing for full range of motion and combat abilities without limitations." Researcher Weimar said.  
"The mid-layer is made up of another articulate body glove that's three millimeters thick. It has been made of a special composite material known as 'Ultra Silk'. It takes components of titanium, durasteel, several rare minerals and threads them into a mesh of Whilarian Spider silk. The ensuing 'alloyed fabric' is 25 times stronger than Titanium. It is nearly resistant to projectiles and cutting. Energy weapons are dissipated to a moderate degree. The weave has the capacity to deactivate Lightsabers as a more interesting note." Researcher Weimar said.  
"The outer armored layer is an interlocking series of 108 plates that provides full protection with the full force of the suit's rigid armor. The plates are an alloy created from Adumantium, Neutronium, Ultronium, Naquida, Titanium and Trinium. The ensuing alloy has comparable defensive properties of three meters of Titanium per millimeter of thickness, it's reinforced with a rare cortosis weave that provides strength protection against physical energy weapons...lightsabers and plasma swords for example. The plates are a uniform five millimeters thick." Researcher Weimar said.  
"That is the full nature of the physical 'armor' itself. On to the more defensive aspects of the armor." Researcher Weimar said and turned the armor around where it stood, effortlessly.  
John cast an odd look at that. Armor that large should have weighted at least ten thousand pounds. But the Researcher was spinning it without difficulty. Researcher Weimar reached up and placed his hand inside the helmet of the armor. With a low his and crackle of static, the backpack on the unit slowly lowered.  
"The defensive systems included within this armor are a series of independently layered energy shielding systems. Taken from standard X-Com design for our Disruptor armor, each layer operates independently, and has an automatic deactivation unit that keeps the shield from being overloaded. That was an issue with the original MLJINOR shields, one layer which was destroyed easily. Now there is quadruple redundancy from the primary shields." Researcher Weimar said.  
"The Primary shields?" John asked.  
"Yes, there are three different layers of shields. The main shielding units that operate in multiple layers. It's a Gravimetric shielding unit that provides good general protection against physical and energy damage. The second layer is a resilient force shield that provides moderate energy and distanced weapon protection. But melee and close combat can penetrate it. There is only one level of Force Shielding. The third level is a kinetic blocking shield which will negate incoming physical mass traveling in any manner resembling a projectile. Those are the active shielding levels." Researcher Weimar explained.  
John nodded.  
"Those 'active' shielding systems defend against the pure and tangible attacks that enemies can utilize. We also included a psionic shielding system to protect the wearer against any kind of mental assault. Of course, there is both a chameleon concealment unit which can blend the armor into the surrounding terrain, and a And, internal dampening units and null-grav units seriously reduce any weight or distance damage, and allow increased effective operations in zero gravity."  
"There is no question about the defensive abilities of the MLJINOR NextGen system. But it does contain significant offensive supplemental capabilities." Researcher Weimar said as he opened access ports and exposed the inner workings of the armor.  
"Micro tractor generators and projected gravity fields make it possible for a ten fold increase in strength and power through the use of the armor when properly linked. Neural field controls and synaptic enhancements mean that the armor is reacting to the user's movements as though it were a skin to the user. With this armor layer reacting without any lag time, this is superior to your armor's lag time of effect for use. This armor does require substantial amounts of power to properly operate, and it has independent systems for survivability. A single centralized 'leach' power unit works in the same manner as X-Com Disruptor weapons technology; it draws an infinite amount of energy from a parallel universe. Backup generators are two miniature Naquadria power units." Researcher Weimar said.  
"I must say that you have all done very well in making my soldiers capable of resisting tremendous amounts of punishment. What of their ability to deal out punishment?" John asked.  
"Yes, of course commander. Our development team has worked to create a set of very lethal weapons specifically for your forces." Dr. Savage said. He nodded to the three individuas sitting near the end of the table.  
"Dr. Renard, Dr. Jager, and myself have been very interested in combing the extensive technologies that our worlds have and we have come up with several very effective standard issue weapons." General Astartes said. He hit a command on the table and another transporter field came into being. This time, rather than a suit of MLJINOR NextGen armor, it was a rack of weapons that were unfamiliar to John. He had used nearly every weapon that the SCM possessed in his time working with them, but these weapons weren't anything he had ever seen before.  
General Astartes stood. He walked over to the rack and picked up a sleek looking weapon about three feet long. The black finish seemed to absorb the scant light in the room and was a dark black over the General's gray uniform.  
"This weapon is the basic Long-arm that we developed for force use." General Astartes said and lifted the weapon up.  
"It's a hybrid form of disruptor and energy weapon. The core of each energy round is a concentrated tachyon-pulse 'egg' that is then encased in an energy shell. The strength of the energy shield around the tachyon- pulse is variable and can be demodulated, making it possible for the round to be armor piercing, delayed detonation or other specialized effects. That primary weapon system is a Dilithium based energy storage cell that is easily changed in combat." General Astartes said and held he weapon up, he thumbed a release and a glowing pink cylinder dropped out.  
"Each cell has the capacity for one thousand rounds of continuous fire. Given enough time the Dilithium units in the storage cell can recharge it. Or if needed it can be recharged artificially." General Astartes said and reloaded the weapon. He turned it over to expose the undercarriage of the weapon.  
"The secondary weapon function is an energy grenade or physical grenade launcher. Using Federation replication technology we've managed to make this weapon only reliant on energy to fire. Its power needs are much higher than the primary system, but it does use the same storage cells, but at a much less efficient transfer rate. Whereas the energy rifle portion can use 1,000 discharges, the grenade launcher is only capable of using 10. But the versatility of the weapon is unrivaled. It cnause a neural link to the host to create any kind of grenade or projectile needed, create it, fuse it for specific detonation and fire it in a heartbeat."  
"We've designated this as the SM-1 Rifle, Mk. 31." General Astartes said as he lowered the weapon and returned it to the weapons rack. He pulled out a pistol from the rack and held it up.  
"Much the same as the SM-1. This is designated the SM-2 Pistol Mk. 43, it fires the same type of energy round as the SM-1, but without variable time and depth settings. Its basic, but it does provide triple the number of energy discharges as a result." General Astartes said.  
"These weapons have independent cloaking and energy shields, nano repair facilities and fully incorporated sensor systems." General Astates said.  
"They appear to be very...original, general." John said.  
"Perhaps you would like a demonstration of them Commander?" The general asked.  
"Yes. I must say, no matter how flashy a weapon is, if it doesn't work I'll take an MA5B over it any day, even if it is supposed to blast through AT-AT's." John said.  
General Astartes smiled.  
"They can do that Commander." General Astartes said. John blinked. The Imperial general smiled slightly. The officer reached down and hit a few points in a hovering hologramatic keypad. A screen came into being in midair. On it several scientists were inside a laboratory/firing range around a rifle. It as an SM-1, but a plated chrome and silver coloring instead of dark black.  
John watched as the researchers finished their changes and a soldier in the massive power armor of an Imperial Dark Trooper walked up and lifted the weapon. The researchers retreated from view and the Dark Trooper aimed down range.  
'SM-1 Rifle, Mk. 28 test firing. Standard energy packet round fired into one meter thick Durasteel plating, Assault Walker Grade armor protection.' A voice said as a string of numbers appeared along the edges of the screen.  
The Dark Trooper aimed and fired, a blue round hued with purple rocketed down range and passed through the meter thick armor plating and kept going. It sent sparks flying as it passed through the energy shields protecting the end of the range and slammed into the far wall, this one reinforced Trinium. The round slowed and melted through the two meters of incredibly strong alloy and finally stopped when it impacted one of the adumantium support beams.  
"The round passed through reinforced Trinium, Durasteel and three different protective energy shields before stopping. Thankfully, the weapon wasn't set to demodulate its energy shield to pass through defensive and protective shields. Thankfully."  
"Impressive General."  
"Commander, this is the extent of our technological capabilities, perhaps you would like to see a demonstration of the finished Spartan, with augmentations, armor and weapons?" Dr. Savage said. John nodded.  
"Right this way Commander." Dr. Savage said. He lead John from the briefing room and through the labyrinth of the research department to one of the many Transporter pads that the station boasted.  
In yet another flurry of blue light they arrived in a larger control room overlooking a series of rooms and passages that were a duplicate of a Covenant Cruiser's command area.  
"This is one of our training areas for the final tests of field Spartans. This is an assault mission against a Covenant Cruiser's command section." Sergeant Zim said from his place near the main consoles looking down into the replica.  
John gazed down at the maze of passages. He'd fought through them before and had his own vivid memories of the events.  
"The opposing force is a mixture of regular Covenant, Sith, Lizards and many other races of the Covenant Hegemony. But of course, we throw in our own troops just to increase the difficulty. They are holograms of course." Zim said.  
"What's the operational size of the unit Sergeant?" John asked.  
"Normally, it's a two person team for Spartans now. Four for an operational unit, and twelve for an assault team. Right now we have an assault team going in on this since the enemy force is so large." Zim said.  
"Okay, show me what they can do." John said.  
Zim nodded and a small timer started to count down on the control panel.  
  
"Alright! You know the layout and the drill boys, girls, and otherwise, so let's do this right!" Spartan Sergeant Flox -2031 said as he marched down the small aisle on the Assault shuttle. The ant-like Ketton walked down with his helmet off for the moment. His mandibles clicked slightly and his black eyes looked down at the other Spartans.  
"We're putting on a show for the old guard Spartans. Commander -117 is watching, the boss. So let's make this as perfect as we can make it. If I see any slip ups, you're going to have to answer to me, got it!" Flox -2031 said. He was answered with the shouts of every other trooper in the shuttle.  
"Alright! You know deployment and your assignments, clear it and smear 'em!" Flox said with a nod as he donned his helmet. The other troopers stood and readied their weapons.  
The assault shuttle bumped and landed in the bay, weapons fire flaring against the shields and armor of the craft as it settled. The Spartan near the head of the shuttle smacked his hand into the door release and it opened, exposing the soldiers to a vicious barrage of plasma fire. Which had completely no effect.

The two lead soldiers leveled their SM-1's and opened fire with grenades. The rounds were a mix of Elerium high explosive and Needler Flechette rounds – a derivative of Covenant Needler technology, firing off a hive of the same purple needles that the Covenant had – that tore through the defenders. The Spartans stormed out of their assault craft and into the hangar bay. Their wedge formation was perfect as they moved to get cover and return significant fire.

"Williams, Frinlur, take that Shade!" Flox -2031 shouted as he fired his SM-1 at a Wraith tank that was powering up. The energy rounds slammed into the side and began to bore through it. The human Williams -9123 and Frinlur -4522 sprinted over to the raised docking platform that cut the shuttle bay into two separate landing pads. With a massive jump and null grav units, they arched high in the air and landed on the platform. Williams opened fire and melted the Grunt at the controls and the shade with a flurry of fire. Frinlur charged down the walkway, swatting the Covenant defenders. Elites, grunts and even Hunters were smacked aside by the large form of the Reptilian Gorn.

"Move up to the walkway." Flox ordered his unit. The Spartans jumped in great leaps that would be impossible for unaugmented creatures.

"Gordon, Jax, Kileie, Illian, keep the bay secure!" Flox ordered one of his units. They gave affirmatives and took up firing positions. Their volume of fire slammed into the ranks of the Covenant defenders, slaughtering the aliens as they moved forward.

"Alright, let's go!" Flox ordered and he leapt up to a higher level, slamming through a near solid wall of enemy soldiers as they fired down. The Ketton drew his lightsaber and alternated between shooting and slashing as he cleared out the position. Behind him, Krell jumped up, the bulky Klingon drew his bat'leth and began to do the same. All around them Covenant warriors fell in pieces before the Spartans. The other eight Super Soldiers joined them, their SM-1's, personal melee weapons and personal ranged weapons tearing through the massed defenders. The battle was turning into little more than massed slaughter, but the Covenant soldiers continued to throw themselves into the melee to push the Spartans back. But the Spartans were pushing forward.

"Fan out, clear this level, Hquillieades, Nnoonana, Vaallianar, with me, we're taking the bridge. More affirmatives and the other four Spartans broke apart into two man teams, they swept through the enemy forces with ridiculous ease. Flox lead his team through the bulkheads and hatchways, killing anything that stood in their way. All resistance melted before them, even the fanatical Covenant Elites broke before the onslaught. They rounded a corner and ran into a squad of Hunters which were simply dissolved by SM-1 fire before they even had a chance to raise their fuel rod cannons.

"Let's go, hit and destroy the bridge." Flox said and the other three Spartans charged forward with him. They opened fire on the sealed bridge blast door, tearing it from it's mountings with a barrage of energy rounds and grenades from their SM-1's. The huge alloyed doors slammed into the ground and the Spartans charged in, slaughtering the defenders in a few moments. They drew and hurled their Vortex Mines then sprinted from the room. The erupting explosions tore through the Covenant Command center and raced down the halls.  
  
John watched the Spartans as they carried out their mission; even against holograms they were exceedingly effective and thorough with their slaughter. His eyes drifted to the clock on the control console, only 36 seconds had passed by. These new Spartans were the best he had ever seen.

"Well, what do you think Commander?" Sergeant Zim asked.

"I'd say that they're capable of taking on the Covenant, Sergeant. Let's take the fight to them." John said with a satisfied nod.

"Yes sir." Zim said. The Sentient Coalition had given the UNSC hope for survival. Now, its technology, its advancements, its people and its cultures would give the Universe a chance to destroy the scourge of the Covenant once and for all.  
  
A/N Yes, I know it has been a while, but School, sorry... And in reference to the chapter, I know this wasn't the action packed one you were looking for, this was more into the technical aspects, and I wanted to create a Spartan unit that really can wail on the Covenant.  
  
Look for the next chapter (No promises on time) Chapter 4: Stopover


	6. Chapter 4: Stopovers

Insert usual apology for lateness

You all have official permission to yell at me for this one's long overdue update. I am going to finish this book, and the next and the next.

Horrific writers block with this. Not pretty...soooooo sorry. I wanted to something good, not just filler. I just couldn't get what I wanted to write down properly...I had a lot of false starts on this one. I couldn't decide on what to write, mainly because I planned out this book and the next two pretty fully, and ideas keep comming to me for them. But thankfuly, Halo 2 hath rikindled my drive to write.

Plus I've been considering the plot and premise of an original book that I want to write and see if I can get it published. For money.

Oh, and I was thinking of setting up a C2 community for Far Flung hope in it's entirety. All the books and even the little 'shorts' I've been thinking of. Plus, those of you who are 'thinking about doing something like this' could post there as well.

Anybody going to say yes to that idea?

Insert usual warning for horrific violence and graphic sequences

In this chapter we see a little bit of the Sentient Coalition's response to alien invasions and one of the more dangerous 'Regular' Sentient Coalition units. Plus one of the Covenant pushes into protected space. And, you get to see the Covenant Equivalent of the Spartans revealed...look out Brutes...

Here Come the Paladins

Chapter 4: Stopovers

Sentient Coalition Assault Drop Carrier 'Damocles'

Cloaked in High Orbit over Earth 43463654-7355435-45CDRS2

January 28th 2554, 0034 Hours UST

The confines of a Assault Drop Carrier's main 'Exfiltration bay' were barely large enough for it's elite troops to manuver through it's cramped confines. It resembled a technological catacomb. Made up of narrow corridors that wove their way around thick colums festoned with electronics and displays. Each of these collums each resembled a tomb on it's own, the darkened confines shrouded in shadows. The dim red lights that lit the halls gave barely enough light for the armor clad soldiers to make their way to their pods.

But these soldiers were veterans, culled from some the best assault troops in the sentient coalition and formed into an elite division whose duty was tantemount to suicide. They would drop from low orbit out of a cloaked vessel down into a cmobat zone filled with enemy troopers and absoloutely no friendlies since they were the vanguard of of an invasion force. Armed with little beyond an M21 Gauss Rifle and light body armor, they would carve out the foot-hold for a full planetary invasion.

Finding their way through some dark passages was the least of their troubles.

They moved through the passages with docile steps. Their minds filled with the neural dowloads of the mission plans and operations that they had recieved. As conditioned, their minds partialy shut down in accordiance with their rigorous training and they moved in a zombie like state to ready themselves for combat, this allowed their consious minds to fully asimilate the information that had been cramed into it.

The troops piled into their small pods they situated themselves for the fierce combat they were about to engage in.

Currently the 'Damocles' was sheathed within the protective systems of a Phantom Cloaking device rendering it impervious to sensor scans and invisible to onlookers. Far beneath it, another Earth sat unaware of it's prsence, it's occupiers incapable of realizing that they were about to be pitched from the world that they were harvesting.

The 'Visitors' had come to earth with promises of knowledge and friendship. Instead they brought a fascist state and harvested the planet for food.

Now the Sentient Coalition was going to pitch them from this world with vengence and fury.

The 'Damocles' had been sent in early with a full compliment of it's Sub Orbital Drop Shock Aassault Troops would launch the first strike. A drop assault to take Los Andeles International Airport and secure it as the primary landing zone. After that, the remainder of the fleet would jump into the system and engage the Visitor fleet and begin landing the bulk of the ground forces.

Two Colonial Marine assault Divisions, plus one Imperial Mechanized Division, one Stormtrooper Division and one New Republic Light Infantry Division would be landed within an hour of the SODSAT forces taking the landing zones.

The troops in the 1st SODSAT Division waiting within their hardened drop pods to descend upon the occupied Earth below their boots. They were primed and ready for battle, this would be their first taste of combat as a unit, and they hungered for the chance to prove their unit was capable.

Lt. General William Camllan stood inside his drop pod. The various feeds from his HUD glowed in the darkened cocoon that surrouned him with stealth systems, ECM, and layers of armor. He knew what lay beneath him for himself, and his entire unit. He knew his men were ready.

He activatd the division wide com system and stretched his voice out through the bay and into the comm of every single soldier under his command.

"Soldiers...Remember, Victory from the Skies." General Camllan said as his drop pod shuddered and began it's plummet to the world below. He needed to say nothing else than the official motto of the SODSAT's. He was nestled in his pod as it fell to earth, the first of the entire invasion force.

Far beneath the Assault Carrier 'Damocles', Los Angeles International Airport began it's own day of buisness. Even with the Visitor occupation and crackdown on human movement, LAX still had it's share of travelers passing through it, although not nearly as many as it used to. And as these commuters and travelers filled the terminals and buildings of LAX, many looked up into the dawn sky to see the streaks of meteors darting down through the sky with long contrails through the atmosphere. Many of them paused to watch the brilliant display, unaware of what was dropping towards them from on high.

Deliverance.

The first kill of the Visitor War is credited to Sgt. William Mcalaster, formerly of the British 5th para brigade and attacthed to the 1st SODSAT division. He had the grim honor of guiding his drop pod directly into the Visitor Command Center in the main terminal, ending the lives of ten Visitors and three collaborators in a crushing death as his pod smashed through the roof of the building and demolished it with ease. With that first set of kills, the battle began.

January 28th 2554, 0113 Hours UST

"MOVE IT OUT OF HERE!" Corporal Jinxi Fartudi chattered through his ant like mandibles at the pilots of the 707. He gestured with the M21 Gauss rifle he had and was trying to get them to move the jet liner off of the runway they sat at. But the pilots seemed to be a little terrified of a six foot tall ant standing in their cockpit with a weapon. Terrified, but willing to obey. The pilot nodded and moved the plane off of the runway. They both looked back nervously at the massive alien behing them, trying to figure out what exactly he was doing here.

Their eyes glanced at the scant amount of insignia on the troopers uniform. Only the stylized Sentient Coalition emblem, a spiral galaxy in gold on a black backgorund with an 'S' and a 'C' set on either side in silver, they looked sharp and angled like lightening bolts. This rested above his 'national' flag, the New Republic Nova bird and stars flash. On the left breast of the body armor he wore was the unit emblem of the SODSAT, a downard cone with small drop pods descending on a planet was displayed, along with the words 'Victory from the Skies' beneath it.

"Thank you!" Jinxi said with a chatter, then kicked in the command frequency.

"This is 2nd squad, runway 486 is cleared of traffic."

"Affirmative, all runways cleared."

Jinxi nodded to himself and headed back out of the cockpit, eliciting a few small screeches of terror from the passengers. Not that his squad was having much better luck. None of them were human, or even entirely humanoid for that matter. Plus they'd just hijacked their plane didn't help either.

"Let's move and secure the runways." Jinxi said and the squad disembarked as the plane rolled away.

Once they hit the ground and began running across the taramac it was easy to see just how many soldiers had been deployed and just how much resistance was behing thrown against them.

Zed Company was deployed near the perimiter of the airport and had begun entrenching and setting up it's few heavy weapons. In the time they'd been here, they had beaten off two dedicated Visitor assaults.

The invaders didn't realize that you couldn't charge a gattling laser cannon and live. Bodies were lying thick in front of the trenches that the company had thrown up were testimony to that grim fact the Visitors had learned twice. Apparently they weren't ready to fend off an enemy force that had some idea of how to fight a war.

"Lieutenant!" Jinxi shouted as his men moved up to a small command bunker that had been thrown up with pieces of several drop pods. Lieutenant Chin Wuhana was holding his com headset and speaking with someone higher up in the chain of command. The officer had the SC patch above his Unified Peoples Republic of China flag, one that was slightly different from the other six represented in the Sentient Coalition Includng a small sickle instead of a pure set of stars. This was different from the Peoples Republic of China's, the Republics of China, the United Democracies of China and on and on the list went. It was enough to give any commander a nightmare trying to keep the forces under his command straight.

"Runway is clear! Say again, Runway is clear! Drop the perigrine, say again, Drop the perigrine!" Lieutenat Wuhana shouted into his comm unit. He glanced up at the Ketton soldier and nodded, the giant humanoid ant nodded too as a stream of bluish energy fire sliced through the air above them.

"Affirmative, beginning Perigrine drop!" the comm pack responded. Lost in the melee of battle as the troopers of the SODSAT battled the Visitor Shock troops hell bent on taking back the runways, lights blinked into being high above them. Long streaks of atmospheric entry and starships dropping out of faster than light travel in small white flashes. But none of them cared about it in the simpler...much more personal battles that raged amongst the airfields.

0115 Hours UST

Charley Company

They'd been given one of the more difficult assingments in taking LAX. The men and women and others of Charley Company were tasked with taking the main control tower at LAX to call off any incoming aircraft and make sure that the drop ships bearing the full weight of the Sentient Coaliton's military might would not have to worry about taking down commuter aircraft when they droped.

Lieutenant Faith Benton was crouched in a stairwell that led up to the control tower, her M21 gauss rifle held in one hand, her other grasped a needler flechette grenade. The lethal little device sent out a shower of needles similar to the Covenant needler weapons. But these rickocheted more and made much more lethal a shower of shards.

"Ready?" She hissed back to the company behind her. The nods and rustle of gear and armor was enough for her. She leanded forward to the corner of the stairwell and leaned her head around. She saw the pair of Visitor guards at the next landing, plus the shadows of a patrol further up. She leaned back, thumbed the safety catch and hurled the small orb up the stairs. The Lieutenant pressed her body against the wall and tilted her helmet and armor together.

A few alien oaths and a loud bang reverberated down the simple halls. That was folowed by a high piched, crystal like tingling sound as the shards bounced off the wall, and a wet twang as they found flesh to affix to. Some screams, a few muffled explosions were then followed by a sick, wet, smacking noise...like throwing a soaked towel against a wall.

"Move it out now!" Lt. Benton shouted and stormed forward, followed by the hundred plus troopers in Charley Company. Her boots slammed down on the stairs as she hurtled forward around the corner and through the gore splatered hall. None of the Visitors were standing...none were alive. They looked like a massive force had simply ripped them apart and slapped the remaining parts against the walls. It was something out of a twisted horror movie and a nightmare. Blood had been flung along the walls as though they were trying to paint over the white.

Lt. Benton steeled herself, she'd seen worse in the civil wars on Gerdion's Shipwright III. This was nothing.

"Move it!" She snarled as she pushed past the carnage and up the stairs. Her M 21 Gauss Rifle held at low combat ready.

The M21 was the new standard for the Sentient Coaliton. It was made to be a hybrid weapon that had some of the best qualities that a personal combat system could posess. Reliability, Simplicity, Dependibility, Lethality and Durability. The M21 was built form the ground up with one specific purpose, to be given to any soldier and used effectively with little or no training in it's use. This need stemmed from the extreme diversity of the soldiers that had begun making up the Sentient Coaliton's military forces. From Human Alliance Shock Troops to Roman Leginaires, Union Soldiers to SS Panzer Grenadiers, Samurai to Conquestadors, the full gambit of military personel were making themselves present in the Sentient Coaliton. The M21 was a bullpup assault rifle, it's 100 round magazine rested behind the rear handgrip on the weapon. It was three and a half feet long and was mattle black. Instead of a conventional barrel, a forked pair of long prongs made up the firing pathway. But it wasn't a firearm, it was a Gauss weapon. Instead of using weighs of combustile material to propell a round towards the target, advanced magnetic fields were used.

The origional technological basis for the weapon was from the Human Alliance Rail Gun technology. They had abandoned Gauss in favor of energy weapons to save ammunition, but energy weapons lacked the flexibility of projectile weapons. That flexibility being that energy weapons run out of power and are useless. But, the energy coils in an M21 consumed enough energy for over one hundred thousand discharges, coupled with the built in radiation conversion recharger, it had practically unlimited energy. But the true flexibility of the weapon was the fact that manufacturing the ammunition was so simple. It could fire any projectile that fit the right parameters. Anything that could be fashioned could be used. The magnetic fields were so strong and regulated, even nonmagnetic materials could be used...and given the immense velocities that the projectiles achieved, anything could be lethal.

Even though the basic SC round was a 'smart' high explosive round designed to either penetrate armor or detonate in soft tissue. But the weapons ammo wasn't too difficult to come by; wood, plastic, metals, bone, even hardened clay could be fired effectively. It was a godsend to the commanders of the massive and still growing armies of the Sentient Coaliton. All you had to do was teach the troopers to point and click, the integral sighting was good enough that if you put the dot on the target, you could hit it.

The weapon was as easy to make for the SC as an AK-47, and even more resilient dura-and Neo steel didn't rust like an AK, lethal enough to be effective aginast the Covenant Armies, and simple enough to be used by any species with a rugged grasp of firearms, or any kind of projectile weapon. And it was good enough a weapon that it was a step up from anything most of the member groups of the SC had available.

Lt. Benton ran up the stairs. Her weapon up and ready. Over her left eye, a small holographic projection displayed a map directly into her cornea, she watched the stream of soldiers thundering up the stairs behind her and at the figures above them in the control tower. The sensors of the 'Damocles' were tied into her battle comp that rested over her left shoulder. As far as the Damocles could pick out, there were seven Visitors above them.

But of course, you never trust intel in combat, even if it's real time. To easy to fool ships sensors from high orbit.

She rounded the last corner and stopped at the small checkpoint at the top of the stairs manned by a single human that was cowering behing his desk. A few vicious motions with M21's and the guard was sent running down the stairs. Benton and a squad stacked up in front of the door ready to clear out the control tower with extreme prejudice. Benton nodded and one of the trooper slapped a detonite charge onto the door. They ducked back from the metal barrier and the charge went off.

The earsplitting roar and bright flash didn't faze the troopers. Their combat helmets had built in flash visors and auditory dampers designed to counterack the flash and shockwave of a nuclear explosion. Unnaffected by the charge, they stormed the control room, weapons blazing.

Two Visitors were chopped in half by a hail of Gauss needles before they could turn to face the blasted door. The remainder of the guards dove for cover behind consoles as the troops of Charley company stormed through the doorway. Blue energy fire and white smoking contrails of Gauss needles cut through the air, but slamming home into flesh with lethal effects. Visitors and SODSAT's were dropping from weapons fire. It was confusing, it was madness, it was war.

Lt. Benton crouched behind what had been a radar console before an energy blast smashed it into junk. She leened out and fired off some needles at a Visitor hiding behind a desk. He ducked and responded with his own volley.

Benton growled and decided she had enough of this, SODSAT's were light infantry, and fast fighters. She didn't want to lose troops eradicating some infantry from a control tower. THe small Lt. motioned to her men and gestured for fire support. They nooded and moved in unision, opening fire without regard towards ammunition use.

Benton rose and ran across the cluttered control room and dove over the desk her shooter was hiding behind. She caught his neck in a full tackle as she flew, snapping it like a twig. Her momentum swung her around the corpse and brought her into a crouch behind it, and with that, enough cover to open up and take down four of the troopers without getting nicked.

She rose and moved along the control aisle with an assasin's grace and speed. She dodged two shots and retaliated with a burst of Gauss fire, decapitating the Visitor. She brought her weapon around to hose down the last Visitor, an energy round slapped the muzzle of her M21 and twirled it away from her body. She spun with the weapon and missed getting hit by two more bolts by milimeters.

Benton brought her combat gloved hand down on the handle of her combat knife and drew it, just as she rolled up onto a console to avoid more energy rounds. She crouched and dashed along the console towards her opponent. He leveled his weapon and fired, just as Benton brought up the finely polished dura/neo-steel alloy blade up and parried the shot.

She lunged forward and sank the knife into the throat of the Visitor, hit rolled and came up with a sick smile. She walked over and stood above the last trooper.

"Human...bitch..." He gurgled through the knife wound in his throat.

"Ah ah ah... Be nice..." Benton said and puled off her helmet, showing her neon green hair.

"That's Del Karva bitch, thank you very much." She said and finsihed him with a vicious kick to his head.

"Alright! I want every plane that want's to land here thrown off, we have a Perigrine Drop comming in and these skies need to be cleared out now! I don't want any drop ships smacking a 707 out of the air, get me?" Benton shouted as her troops moved out and took up positions in the control tower. A few shouts rang out as the control room was secured. Now, if the space forces cleared out the enemy in orbit, this planet was as good as liberated.

Outskirts of the Village of Sheen, England

Earth 352532454-4254353-GS335-543435

January 30th 2554, 0201 Hours UST

As I searched for sustinence from my long imprisonment within the ruined house I rested in a small gulley deep within a corpse of trees. Feeling myself safe from casual detection by a martian in his fighting machine, I endeavored to rest till darkness when it would be easier to evade the martians. I was midday now and to proceed towards Leatherhead in the daylight across the countryside would be foolish...if not deadly.

I am unaware for how long I dozed in the shade and wanting security of that gove of trees before they found me there. I had apparently been asleep for some time before they arrived because the skies were turning from blue to a dark gray. I was abruptly awakened from my slumber with a sharp hand across my mouth, at first I though I had been beset by bandits. That was until a harsh female voice wispered to me in the most commanding of tones;

"Quiet, choo whant 'dem to 'ear us?" The voice said in broken english. I struggled slightly but froze upon the sight of a martian fighting machine standing a mere two hundred yards from me. I was bestruck by terror at the thought that after having come so far, I would be captured or killed by the martians.

Oh, cruel fate...

But even as I began my pleas to god, the martian turned and walked away towards the rubble of Sheen.

The woman's hand did not move from my mouth and I remained frozen as I watched the martian move away, then disappear in the twilight behind another group of trees and a ruined church steeple. The hand released itself from my mouth and I sat up slowly and turned, expecting to see a few beleagued refugees just like myself.

I was mistaken.

At first my mind contrived to make them fit into some sort of norm that I was accustomed to...I thought that they were wearing normal clothing, yet it had been darkened with soot and mud and grass stains. But beyond that there was no expaling their garb, let alone their devices and contraptions they weilded.

"Who are you?" I asked as I examined their clothing and the devices they carried. It was like no clothing I had ever seen. Mottled green, black and brown cloth covered their bodies. What seemed to be rigid plates were affixed to their torsos and parts of their legs. On their heads they looked to be wearing helmets much like those that were worn by workers in coal mines.

"5th SC Marine Assault Corps Recon unit, Sir." One of the darkened figures said. His edges seemed to blend in to the woods around us. The patterns on their clothing were not made by hapenstance...

"Who?" I asked again, my mind focusing on the answer that I had been given. Somehow, I understood that they were soldiers, but they were certainly not atired like soldiers. Their uniforms had none of the resplendid colors and patterns that were so common for the army to posess.

"We're not from around her 'G'." One of the soldiers said. I nodded in agreement before I could react. They were most certainly not from around here. There were eight of them around me in the woods. I could finally count them accurately now that I knew what to look for.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"Well sir, we're from the Sentient Coalition-" The woman who was apparently in charge said.

"The what?" I asked abrupty, interrupting her. The woman blinked and snarled at me.

"You probably wouldn't have heard of us. But we just got here after London fell." The woman continued. I kept silent at the thought of London's downfall, my heart fell...if London, the greatest city of the greatest world power had fallen...humanity was truly powerless to stop the invaders from mars.

"As I was saying...we're SC and we've come into help out some. As for where we're from more specifically. One Aussie, one yank, one russian, a confederate, a Jap, a South African, one mexican, and myself a brit just like you." The woman said and presented her arm. Beneath an emblem the likes of which I had never seen before was the familiar and comforting Union Jack.

To see it represented on a woman, a woman soldier no less...was confusing.

My mind began to wrap itself around what those other nationalities were doing here...Americans and Russians...they were other great nations, and it stood to reason that Australians would come...but so quickly? How could they be here so soon, and together even?

I kept silent from this point because the commander motioned for me to remain silent. Off in the distance I could hear the _'Ulla Ulla Ulla' _of the martians communicating with each other. The darkness was growing opressive, and although I could hear the martian speach, I could not see where it was comming from in the darkness. The clouds above blocked the stars and the moon, leaving us blind.

Or rather, leaving me blind.

I percived the soldiers donning strange dvices over their eyes but had no idea of what they could possibly be. After a few moments they began to move about carefully and raised their weapons. I had no idea what they were doing until I saw the massive form of a martian tripod looming in the darkness above us. I stayed still and silent, hoping that the fighting machine did not spot us.

"Draw it forward about one hundred meters..."The woman said and sighted down her strange weapon. Before I could cry out, they opened fire. Their weapons spurting small blue flashes of light. I knew that this was folloy, no hand weapons could damage a martian fighting machine, it had taken cannon to do that.

"Fall back!" The woman shouted and the soldiers spun and began to run quickly. She paused and grabbed my arm, dragging me along with her. I could barely keep up with them as they sprinted. Even in the darkness and frightful retreat, I cast a glance back and saw the martian slowly turning to pursue us. It seemed to be confused as to which direction we were.

We sprinted for some time before sheltering in a ditch. I knew that this would be of little use if the martian decided to capture us or use a heat ray, and I tried to run. The woman held me firmly in place.

"But we must flee!" I hissed, and attempted to escape. But it was no use, the woman was holding me firmly.

"You run and you're dead. That walker will have you in a few hundred paces. Plus, you'll screw up our kill zone." The woman said. I stopped struggling and looked around...had they placed cannon in the area and were attempting to ambush the fighting machine? If they were, I would not ruin this well laid plan by fleeing, despite my impusles to do so.

"Here he comes...Yacovi, get that Cannon ready." She said quietly to another of the soldiers. I looked around wondering how I could have missed a cannon in the ditch with us. But despite the darkness, I was sure there was no gun emplacement in this ditch with us. I looked back at the soldier that the commander had spoken too, but he was bringing something up to his shoulder. It looked like four tubes set onto a flat base. On the bottom of this contraption was a small grip for ones hand and a place to rest against one's shoulder.

I wondered what it was until the commander barked the order to fire.

The man named Yacovi fired the strange weapon and it's effects were just as amazing as the Heat ray or the Blakc smoke employed by the martians...only much more spectacular. A bright bolt of dazzling blue light erupted forth from one of the four barrels of the weapon. It cut through the night and illuminated trees and the ground as it flew with an errie blue radiance. The bolt of blue flew almost imperceptibly fast and slammed into the hood of the martian fighting machine.

It struck with a shower of blue sparks and it looked like blue lightning danced across the surface of the martian fighting machine. It waivered in place for a moment and halted without making any further progress.

"Let fly." The woman said, but she did not adress any of the soldiers in the ditch. I wondered who she was speaking too since there was no recipient of her message. But before I could ask what she meant, far behind us on the other side of the pasture we were laying next to, a firey object flew from the dark trees. Behind it a trail of smoke played out. It moved quickly, not nearly as fast as the blue bolt, but rapidly no less. I watched in awe as it flew out and over our heads, then arched up into the sky and straight down into the top of the fighting machine.

The martian construct waivered in place, then it's legs toppled to the ground...the hood containing the martian had been obliterated.

I sat up in the ditch and looked at the sight of the martian machine laid low by a few soldiers.

"Who are you?"

"We're from the Sentient Coalition, and we're here to help."

Deep space, sunward of the Sol System Asteroid belt

Earth 397843495-464-578-454-4ARD

January 31st 2554, 0900 Hours UST

The emerged from the dark expanse of space as quietly as they could, from the smallest Remington Frigates and Patton Class Recon Corvettes to the immense bulk of a 100 Kilometer long Iriquois Super Battle Ship and the epic size of a 120 Kilometer long Washington Class Heavy Carrier. The joint Human Alliance and United Stellar States fleet was moving to eradicate the alien invaders of another world. The Human Alliance was one of the most powerful forces within the Sentient Coalition, along with the United Stellar States.

The United Stellar states had origionally been the United States of America, but after four world wars it became the sole ruling body on it's own earth and drove outwards to the stars. There, they came into contact and conqured other alien races, many of them apparent in other galaxies. They had waged a long and brutal campaign against the Borg on the fringes of their galaxy, but had conqured other alien races. Klingons, Romulans, Rodians, Yautja, Lizards, and countless other alien races were conqured and brought into the fold of the United Stellar States. This massive variety of species and their technological prowess made them some of the fiercest forces in the Sentient Coalition, and a valued ally in the war against the Coalition.

And with their industrial might arrayed against the covenant there was a much greater chance of survival for the expanding Sentient Coalition. And Right now this military might was arrayed against a Covenant Armada that was subjugating another world, trying to push back the Coalition's borders and gain more forces to hurl at the Coalition.

They weren't going to let that happen.

USS Turmaine, Washington Class Heavy Carrier

The Bridge

0900 Hours

The command ship of the coalition fleet was a flurry of activity as the armada left the embrace of hyperspace and entered into the thralls of reality. Stellar Marshall Volajenau Strantanon stood infront of the synth-diamond viewport and looked at the planet before him. It looked so much like his own home and yet so unlike it. The face of the world was still so undeveloped that the population centers were unviewed from orbit. Unlike the sprawling expance of the Capital Megalopolis on his home that stretched from the hights of old Canada down to the state of Panama and as far west as the Mississippi, there was nothing.

The expanses of the Russian Territories and the Chinese states were not the massive military garrison encampments and training grounds for the four billion strong Capital Guard forces. The island of Japan still existed, on his world it had been entirely annihilated in an antimatter weapon exchange during the Final War.

It was amazing to see a world so like home and yet jilted.

Even the space colonies and space docks were different. Rather than the normally formed multi-level constructs of the USS, these were tiny cylinders, spinning for gravity generation. Not only was this system primitive it was also backwards and so depopulated.

Less than twenty billion people. His own system boasted nearly a trillion, and that was just Sol.

"Well, primitive it may be, we've been ordered to whoup the Covies out and restore some sort of order here. Am I right?" The Stellar Marshal said to no one in particular. His mind already leapt to the battle ahead. He was going into battle against the largest Covenant Fleet seen since the counterattack at reach. Whatever this system held, the Covenant was very intent on getting it. And he was just as intent on keeping them from it.

Stellar Marshall Strantanon looked at the hologramatic displays as the fleet began to array itself to face the Covenant forces spread throughout the system before him. Roughly five hundred were attempting to blockade the earth adn were engaged in a furious battle with the resident space forces, transponder signals were reading them as being Zeon and Earth Forces Regular ships. The Humans were mostly on the loosing end of this engagement despite their rather interesting jamming technology and mecha.

The seven large space stations and the other planetoids around earth were under less of a blockade, but a blockade none theless, each of the stations had five to ten Covenant ships around them, and the moon was surrounded by fifty vessels. This was going to be quite an engagement.

Strantanon brought up a personal hologram of the engagement between the Covenant and the locals and looked at the forces arrayed against eachother. It was primarily stock Covenant ships, Cruisers, Destroyers and even a slew of carriers. These outclassed the locals on their own. Around the core of Covenant ships were a mixture of Yevethan made Star Destroyers up to the Super class, and several large vessels that read as being 'Sith' battleships. It was quite a fleet, and the local Zeon and Earth forces weren't able to go toe to toe with them.

At least their fighter wings were superior to the Covenant's Seraph fighters and Yevethan TIE's. The majority of the locals single man fighter craft were mecha and not traditional spacecraft. Strantanon smiled and nodded slowly, this would be a good fight.

"All ships press to battle line and proceede at flank speed towards the Earth. Prime weapons and engage targets at will. All fighter and Mecha wings launch and engage." Strantanon ordered with a smile. This would be a very good fight.

Strantanon watched as the fleet leapt towards their Covenant foes.

US 'Richthofen' Class mecha battlesuit

Wing Commander 'Katarn Fury'

0938 Hours

Wing Commander Tolanr sat within the Titanium-Adumantium alloyed hull of his Richthofen battlesuit and aimed the suit towards the engagement ahead of him. The Klingon Ace surveyed the battle with cold eyes of one who has seen so many battles that they began to bleed together. He brought up a sensor scan of one of the mechs fighting in the battle and ran the sensors through a high end annylisis algorithm. The results were slightly suprising to say the least.

There wasn't a united set of specifications for the mobile suits. there seemed to be two different varieties of suits, the Zaku's and Gelgoog's that the Zeon forces used, and the GM or Gundam classes that the Federation utilized. They appeared to be decent suits considering the level of technology that this world had reached.

"And yet so inferior to our own Richthofen classes...are they not Linnonz?" Tolanr said back to his weapons officer behind him in the cockpit. The Rodian nodded and concurred.

"You better believe it Commander." Linnonz said.

The Richthofen was the latest main line battlesuit developed for the US Navy and Airforce. Unlike the 'Nobunaga' variant used by the Army and Marines, which were areo-phibious and could be better utilized on the ground, the Richthofen was a truly space based bird of prey.

Equiped with an antimater reactor it had an operation lifespan of five years, reactionless thruster systems that ran completely off of internal power. A humanoid shape with arms and legs around a torso and head gave the Richthofen manuverability and a fairly good amount of flexibility in combat. The cockpit was nestled within six inches of ultradense Titanium-adumantium alloy armor plating and connected to the outside world through an intricate series of tachyon and milimeter gamma sensor systems.

Normaly the Richthofen class was armed with a phased plasma disruptor rifle and a untradense monofliament blade for close combat. Augmenting these carried weapons were a mixture of pulse phasor arrays mounted on the wrists of the battlesuit and various antimatter rockets for some close in punch. In the hands of a master the Richthofen was a deadly adversary.

Tolnar thought that these mecha were actually the building blocks of the craft he was piloting. Of course, the US did have over 1,500 year lead on mecha design since the end of the Final War. That was back when the first mecha, the 'G Gundam' mecha had come into US hands. Origionaly designed as Gladitorial fighting battlesuits, they'd been quickly designed to be mass produed as an effective ground combat weapons plant. They'd been quickly accepted as a combat system for the Marines since they were capable of fighting in the air, on land, in space and underwater. All things that the US Marine Corps beecame involved with in the aftermath of the Final War and the Great Expansion.

The older and more conventional wing of the Navy and Airforce was the fighter, and right now it was the F-200 Valkyrie aerospace fighter. A forward swept wing fighter shaped much like a crecent it looked very lethal shrouded in hologramatic camoflage, it was a mirage of the stars. Armed with a pair of pulse blaster cannons and eight nuetrino wave homing missiles armed with antimater reactive warheads. It was as dangerous a force in the right hands as the Richthofen.

And every pilot in the US fleet was a skilled fighter and mecha pilot.

"All battlesuits and fighters engage enemy craft at will. Clean out the covies from Earth orbit and make sure that we've got a clear area of operations." Tolanr said.

Around him the massed fighters and mecha of the US fleet in-system.

Good fight ahead...really good fight ahead.

Tolanr worked his control yoles and aimed the Richthofen towards a wing of five Seraph fighters. The flying 'V' of craft were making a bombing run on one of the Federation craft. Tolanr smilled and gunned his thrusters to full, it sent the Richthofen flying towards the fighters like a meteorite. The fighters were unaware of their attacker until the very end. Tolanr brought his mecha down between the trialing fighters, the mono-molecular blade tore through the back pair as his phased plasma disruptor rifle opened fire with a torrent of neon green death that fraged the other three.

"Next group of victims?" Tolanr said.

The Richthofen's and Valkyries dove into the fray of the battle without pause. The elegant dancing and piloting that was involved would have put the reflexes of a swoop pilot going throught the crystaline swamps of Corellia to shame. They were good, no doubt about it, and their craft made them even better. Untold numbers of Covenant Seraph fighters and Yevethan TIEs and D-Types were shredded by a massive flyby of mecha and fighters.

The entire thrust took place so quickly that the battle seemed to stall for a few moments as the newly arrived craft swept through the ragged front line between the unlikely allied forces of Zeon and the EFR fleets.

It was as though no one knew what to do in response to the new arrivals.

EFR Magellan Battleship Fenris

The Bridge

Admiral Tey Sokivo sat in shock at what he was seeing. Embroiled in a desperate struggle to try to hold off the alien invaders that had managed to push the combined Zeon-Federation fleets out of Lunar orbit, and away from the other colonies. The fleet had been pushed back from it's defensive lines at Compei, and had lost nearly 70 of their combat forces. All the space colonies had fallen and Earth was all that was left. The Zeon's had fought tenaciously to defend their territory, but it hadn't been enough. Now both sides, unlikely...and mainly bitter allies of ncessity were on the verge of annihilation.

Until this other force had shown up. It was packing mecha and fighters of no kind he'd ever seen.

"Open a channel to whoever's in command of that fleet now!" Admiral Sokivo shouted to the comms officer. She nodded and her hands flew across the keyboard in front of her. The Admiral watched as two Zeon Musai Cruisers engaged a 'Covenant Star Destroyer'. The two smaller ships were ripped apart by the energy cannons and missile emplacements the ship carried. It finished with several flights of fighters launching from it's bays. Nothing could be done as the pair of Zeon Cruisers were oblitereated in a shockwave of energy.

Three other Magellan Battleships lined up and unloaded the destructive force of their main cannon into the large wedge shaped ship. The main cannon rounds ripped into the hull of the star destroyer and erupted with massive explosions.

It was aided by a single glowing silver projectile launched from somewhere in the direction that the new mecha and fighters had come from. The single round was followed by others that slammed home into the Covenant Fleet. Suddenly, the battle seemed to be a little less one sided.

"I have the commander on the comm sir." The comms officer said. Admiral Sokivo looked down at a small display screen and saw someone that looked very, very human gazing at him through the electronic link.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?" Admiral Sokivo said bluntly. The figure on the screen smiled.

"What, no small talk? No 'hiya', no how ya doin'? Well, I guess that's to be expected. I'm Stellar Marshall Strantanon of the United Stellar States, member of the Sentient Coaliton." The figure said with a smile.

"Who?"

"The enemies of the guys trying to invade your system and wipe out or enslave your people. We're the cavalry." The Stellar Marshall said.

"About damn time." Admiral Sokivo said.

"You can withdrawl your forces for survival. The Human Alliance and the US have the defense under control here.

"A cold day in hell Stellar Marshall. Good guys or not, this is our world, our solar system and we're sure as hell not going to hide while you boys do all the finishing up work here. And if you think we are you can just turn tail and run off right now!" Admiral Sokivo said with a snarl.

Stellar Marshall Strantanon smilled much more boradly.

"If you'd have said anything else I would have thought you a coward. Good hunting and good luck." The Stellar Marshall said with a nod and a salute before cutting the comm line.

Covenant Carrier 'Humble Vengeance'

The Bridge

Fleet Master Eilr'amatanate looked at the display screen with dread. The sensor profiles of the Human Alliance ships had been etched in his mind after the defeats at the UNSC Earth and at Reach. Those were some of the deadliest ships that the Covenant had ever come into combat against, and so far there had been few...if any...instances where the Human Alliance's ships had been defeated by a Covenant force of Equal numbers.

To stand and fight without an overhwelming force would be suicide. Even the numbers he had arrayed to take the information that the Prophets sought would barely be sufficient. The Fleet master cast his gaze down to a screen that showed an image of the construct colony known as 'Side 7'. That was the true goal of the invasion. The Prophets had sent the fleet here for a new weapon to use against the so called 'Sentient Coalition' that had risen to oppose the Hegemony.

Apparently 'Mobile Suits' and 'Minovsky' technology would be potent weapons to use against the primates and their allies. The will of the Prophets was strange, but it was worth it if it meant victory for the Hegemony against this rabble.

Then so be it.

But he would have to ensure the recovery of the technology that they were after.

"All ships withdrawl to form a defensive perimiter around the 'Side 7' colony. Fighting withdrawl. We need to keep that Colony secure." Eilr'amatanate ordered grimly. He had been given orders to sacrifice as many of his ships as nessicary to aquire the techonolgy. And he would obey those orders no matter what the price involved.

USS Turmaine, Washington Class Heavy Carrier

The Bridge

0930 Hours

Stellar Admiral Strantanon watched the Covenant Armada retreat from Earth at full speed, trading parting shots with the mecha and fighter wings of the US-Human Alliance forces as they ran. The Stellar Admiral was suprised at the rapid retreat but not entirely shocked. The Covenant was learning the hard way that the Sentient Coalition was not such an easy pushover as the UNSC.

But such a hasty retreat wasn't characteristic of Covenant arrogance. It was...strange...

"Where are they going?" Strantanon said aloud.

"They're moving to defend the colony designated Side 7." One of the sensor crewman said. Strantanon looked at the holo displays as the entire Covenant fleet in-system retreated before the US-Human Alliance Force.

'What are they up to?'

Strantanon brought up a link to the Federation fleet's command ship. The Admiral in command came into view on the monitor.

"Wha-" The Admiral managed before Strantanon cut him off.

"What's on 'Side 7' that's so important."

"Nothing Stellar Marshall that you need to know about." The EFR commander said with a hint of arrogance.

"Take that tone again with me Admiral and I open fire on your ships instead of the Covenant." Stellar Marshall Strantanon said with a sneer.

The EFR Admiral sat there in silence.

"Now, what's in Side 7?"

"It's a colony, so civilians."

"Let's try one more time. What would the Covenant want on Side 7?" Strantanon asked.

"It's a Mobile Suit development facility. A top secret Mobile Suit Development Facility." The Admiral replied.

"Ah, well then, we need to know what the Covenant want with your experimental mobile suits. We'll take care of this one Admiral, you can sit this out." Strantanon said and cut the comm. He turned to the Sentient Coalition Liason officer that was on the bridge.

"Commander 117, I leave this matter to the much vaunted capable hands of you and your Spartans." The Stellar Admiral said with a nod.

"Yes sir." John said with a nod inside his MJOLINR armor.

SCSS 'Particle' Modified NR Ferret infiltration vessel

01000 Hours

John sat inside the belly of the heavily modified Ferret that was supposed to insert them into the Side 7 colony. He had complete confidence in the ability of the SC technology to hide him and the other eight Spartans inside the vessel from the Covenant sensors and safely get them into the Side 7 colony. John was just as confident in the abilites of the Spartans with him to get the job done and find out exactly what the Covenant were after within this space colony.

"Comming up on the drop point. No detection by the Covenant forces yet." The pilot said nervously. He wasn't so conifdent. John nodded and turned back to the Spartans within the small passanger compartment. It was a very interesting little group. But one of the best infiltration groups in the Spartans. They were ready for what they liked to call a nice little 'sneak and wreak' or in basic termonology...sneak in kill everything that was hostile, destroy anthing said hostiles had with them, and annihilate anything else that gets in the way. An easy task for a group of fully armed and armored Spartans to achieve.

"Affirmative, lock'em and stock'em." Henry-05343 said aloud to the team. John didn't like the more laid back attitude of the new breed of Spartans, but their previous 'normal' lives gave them a flexibility that his generation of Spartans lacked.

John checked his own SM-1 MK. 40. A distinctly different weapon from the one he'd been shown at the Spartan base intitially. The massive power encased within the SM-1 Mk. 31 was rapidly expended and they usually only had power enough for one of the high power rounds. Now it was decidely less powerful, but no less lethal in the right hands. Along with the standard ranged combat SM-1's and SM-2's each Spartan carried, they also weilded individual melee weapons and sidearms, allowing for some diversity amongst the deadly warriors. Everything from Gauss pistols to projectile and exotic energy weapons were carried.

Bat'leth's and lightsabers were carried as personal melee weapons alongside vibro blades and force swords. The Spartans were lethal no matter what they chose to weild.

"Prepare for dropoff." John said as the infiltration point on the underside of the ship apprached. The other Spartans stood and turned towards the rear of the small passenger compartment and the hatch that was situated there. John looked back to the cockpit as the pilot sealed it and depressurized the cabin.

"Here we go again..." Cortana said through the suit's internal speakers.

"You sound...unnerved." John replied.

"No, no...not at all...just aprehensive about this new armor. First battle in it." Cortana said.

"Always a first time for everything." John said.

"Well, yeah." Cortana said.

"Then relax." John said.

"You're telling me to relax?" Cortana shot back.

John's response was halted when the lead Spartan by the edge of the hatch motioned for readiness. As one the other Spartans activated their camoflage systems, and vanished nearly entirely from view. The lead team member, a Mon Calimari trooper named Kirtelle -1352. A few more signals were exchaned and the trooper opened the rear hatch. The Spartan team drifted out of the rear hatch like debris strewn from a wreck. They were intent on remaining as invisible as possible, espcially since they were within the epic shadow of a Yevethan made Super Star Destroyer.

The team slowly spun in the infinte expanse of free fall towards the hull of the space colony, easily larger than the Super Star Destroyer that they were drifting away from. John had tumbled closest to the surface of the Side 7 colony. He reached out with a gauntleted hand and touched it to the hull a moment before his body would have collided and bounced off. In an instant Cortan altered the energy emitters in his gauntlet to affix to the hull and stick him firm to the surface like a tick.

The rest of the team attached to the hull in the silence of vacuum. They oriented themselves towards John and all gave affirmative indicator signals. John responded with his own and began to crawl across the surface of the colony towards an indicator on his Hologramatic display.

"That will lead into the interior of the colony. Sensor reports show that there are three Covenant ships inside the Colony nearby. I'd be willing to bet that they're after this secret Mecha research facility, and it's right in between them." Cortana said.

"Right." John said in monotone.

He belly crawled along the hull with his boots and gloves sticking firm. He neared a small platform surrounding the entry hatch and leapt down onto it. The other Spartans followed suit and cleared the small platform with innate skill and presicion that their traning had engrained into them. John nodded and examined the hatchway. It didn't appear to be rigged with any traps.

"It's larger than a Super Star Destroyer Commander, I don't think the Covenant had a chance to rig every hatch. But scanning anyway." Cortana said as she directed the full battery of scanners the suit posessed to anylize the door.

"Nothing Commander." Cortana said. John nodded and reached for the open hatch latch. He toggled the switch and the hatch slid open soundlessly in the void. And a trio of bodies drifed out from the hatch with a small flurry of crystalized and frozen blood. The three corpses floated past the Spartans and out into space with the small push of vented atmosphere. John examined the bodies as they passed.

They were all grabed in the tattered remains of Federal military uniforms and were armed. Whatever had done this had been very ruthless. Just like the Covenant always were. But these bodies had been mutilated differently than the normal Covenant ways...

They looked eaten partially...

"Commander, I've got something on sensors..." Cortana said and a small red blip appeared on his sensor monitor. As one the Spartans turned to the gaping entry into the interior of the Colony. It was shrouded in darkness and shadows. John's visor automatically formed a composite tachyon, infrared, lowlight, and thermal image of the interior of the small stairway leading up into the colony. It looked to be empty of any intruders.

"Maybe they were dumped here." Gilimiztistiz - 8342 said. The plysserian warrior was taller than the chief and perhaps one of the smartest Spartans in the team. Although the nickname 'Gilligan' that he'd been given didn't really instill confidence in his mental prowess.

"Let's move out." John ordered. They moved into the hallway and upwards. The small red blip moved along with them, ahead of them and out of sight. The staircase was shurouded in darkness and shadows as the Spartans proceeded upwards. Nothing sought fit to challenge them, but the blip remained in place. John didn't like it one bit but they had no choice, they had to get into this colony and there was only one entrance from here.

"The Stellar Marshall said he would attack the Covenant forces a half hour after our insertion. So the clock is ticking Commander." Cortana said.

"I am aware." John said simply. He nodded to the other Spartans and they picked up their pace to a run up the hall. For the Spartans it was a short time, although for an unaugmented being it would have taken an hour at least to cover the distance. The small red blip seemed to remain tantilizingly out of reach for the Spartans. But something was there.

"Commander..." Harrisolin -9952 said. The human was kneeling next to a small set of scrapes in the metal decking. It was a set of four identical silvery marks in the metal. Claw marks.

"I think our friend left these." -8342 said and knelt down to look at the marks. John nodded and looked at the door in front of them. Whoever was going ahead of them would have left the covies know exactly what was comming. And they would be ready.

"Two-by-two deployment. Fan out and intel the mecha facility. I want to know exactly what the Covenant is after there. I'll head out on my own. We rondevous back here in one hour. Or sooner if the bug-out signal is sent." John said. The affirmative signals blinked on and John nodded.

"Move." John said and the Spartans slammed through the door and into the massive interor of the colony. They scattered in different directions in pairs. John alone ran forwad through the false sun and atmosphere towards the location that had been identified as the main research facility.

With a sense of detachment he noted that the Covenant really had flown three Cruisers into the colony. They hung around the target location in midair inside the emic interior expanse of the colony. At the far end of the colony a gaping hole shown into space, probably shorn up with energy and grav fields to keep the air in and the vac out so the Covenant forces could operate in peace.

John darted across a deserted street and down an alleyway. He'd seen a lot in the years he'd fought the Covenant and even more since the founding of the Sentient Coalition, but this space colony was one of the most interesting things he'd ever seen. From the outside the immense surface of the colony was without features beyond the solar pannels and docking bays. Inside an entire society lived and worked, millions upon millions lived inside the interior of the Side 7 Colony.

Had...Had lived inside the Side 7 Colony.

John looked at bodies that lay in the streets as he ran by. Most of them looked to be in states of suprise or terror...clearly the Covenant had thrown up their energy shielding after blowing a hole large enough to pilot a cruiser through. They'd lost a lot of air through the hole in the meantime...and probably slaughtered all of the populace in the process.

John growled softly, another few million lost to the Covenant. Strange how after so long, another million dead was just another number.

"There are those that say one death is a tragedy...a million is a statistic." Cortana said mutedly.

"Bring them here and have 'those' say that." John said as he danced around the figures of a fallen family that looked as though they were trying to run...but they had nowhere to run to as the air was torn from their lungs.

"There's oxygen in the atmosphere now, enough to survive at least. Apparenty the reserves kicked in. Cortana said. John grunted as he ran. He was immune to any kind of atmosphere within the filters and generators of his NexGen MJOLINOR armor. The Civilians here weren't so lucky. But something suddenly struck John. The bodies in the airlock had been killed and...eaten...so if everyone was dead from the vaccum, what had killed those men before the attack?

John found out what had done it in a heartbeat later.

Whatever they were, John had never before seen their ilk within the ranks of the Covenant Military. There were a lot of them too. At least six creatures just seemed to appear in front of him.

"Well hello there..." Cortana said.

John came to a halt and raised his SM-1, back peadling as he did so. The creatures moved towards him.

John eye balled one quickly.

It stood about seven feet tall and was the color the void of space, so dark that it's skin seemed to swallow up the light itself. Although, skin wouldn't be the right way to describe it...more like thousands of fine and minute scales covered the surface of the creature. It's hands and feet were both boasted long, and very sharp looking talons. The most menacing feature of the creature wasn't it's skin or it's claws...it was it's head. It looked like a corss between a dragon, and a demon. It's eyes were large, almost the same as those of a Sectoid's or Plyserrians' dull large black eyes. They were both spaced out on either side of the creature's head staring forward towards it's prey. It's facial features seemed to be closely akin to a dragon's pointed muzzle and rows of razor fangs.

The creature was sheathed in an armor that was nearly pure silver in color. It gleamed clearly...except where it was splashed with the drying crimson of human blood. In it's hands it carried a staff that gleamed in silver. But that was leveled at him much like a Goa'uld staff weapon.

It seemed to exude a sense of awe inspiring terror, or tried to...Spartans didn't scare easily. John swept the SM-1 in wide archs to cover all the new targets.

"And who might you be?" John said aloud.

"We are the devine creation of the prophets. Forged by their almighty strength and powers to be the tool of infinte justtice and holy might to smite the demonic creature that you and your kin are. You are a blasphemy to the everlasting glory of the Covenant Hegemony and an abomination before the eyes of the pure and divine holiness of the Forerunners. We are the holy warriors sworn to annihilate your kind and only your kind from the existence of the universe and cleanse your blight. We are the Paladins of the Covenant Hegemony." The creature said.

"Covenant, that's all I need to know." John said and oppened fire with the SM-1. It's purpleish hued energy rounds ripped out from the muzzle of the weapon in a stream of death as he swept the weapon across the creatures...

...only they weren't there.

John began to back up quickly.

"Cortana..." John said with a rare hint of urgency. The Spartan Commander was never that emotional.

"Working o- MOVE!" Cortana veritably screamed and John rolled forward, missing the staff of one of the creatures. It cut through where his body had been and smacked into the concrete pavement he'd been standing at. The staff easily drove through the material, downwards and around, forming an arch of motion with the creature's swing. John brought the SM-1 and sprayed the creature with energy bolts...energy bolts that were modulated to pass through shielding and penetrate layers of armor plating like a sabot shell from a battle tank through a spider web.

The creature brought it's staff up and it seemed to split ever so slightly, exposing a narrow strip of glowing gold. As the first energy round came perpendicular to the staff, it smacked into something invisible and diffused. The creature grunted and slid back as the rounds impacted the shield. The five round burst skipped the enemy back a good three feet. The enemy brought the staff up and it began to scintilate with gold and purple energy.

"Mistake." The Paladin said and dischared a golden-purple round of energy at him. John dodged to the left and slammed through the wall of the building next to the alley. He flew through it as the energy pulse passed him by mere inches. His shields flickered slightly in response.

John hit the floor and rolled, landed on his feet and backed up, his SM-1 aimed at the hole and charged to full blast. It meant he only had about sixty rounds, but he could take down Hunters though their shields with this setting. He'd need it.

John bumped into the opposite wall and cracked it. His motion tracker showed six blips opposite the wall, in the alley he just came from. John helt the trigger down and started hurling energy rounds through the wall. The thin wall was torn apart by the volley of high powered energy projectiles. After he finished plastering the wall, it was barely there...but so were the hostiles.

"Damn..." Cortan said as the red blips outside the room became the Paladin's within the room. John let the expended energy clip fall from the SM-1 and fall to the ground. His hand drew a spare and jammed it into the weapon. In the lightning fast motion of his augmented neural network, nanological enhancements and bioaugmentations, the action took a microsecond.

They were on him by the time he slammed the clip home.

John brought the SM-1 up to block the staff of one of the Paladins as it was swung at his head. The staff wasn't a staff though, a glowing energy blade had appeared on the swinging end that impacted his rifle. It bit into the metal and threw John off balance. He brought his leg down and rolled over his shoulder. Comming back up in a crouch, his weapon up and fired off a three round burst of energy at the Paladin. Two of the trio of rounds slammed into the warrior's staff and kicked him off his feet, sending him tumbing backwards end over end across the room. The third caught the creature as it's staff was knocked aside and managed to slam into the alien warrior's face. The alien's body disintegrated from the raw energy that was unleashed upon it.

John spun in place and leveled the SM-1 at the next target but lost the contest of speed. Before he could fire he was being lifted into the air, completely unable to move. The remaining five paladins held their hands out straight and stiff...John knew exactly what was going on.

A Force Choke.

These creatures had the powers of the force.

John struggled with the force powers as he was hoisted into the air. But it was futile, he didn't have either the strength, nor the force ability to overcome the deathgrip that his body was being subjected to. He felt a pressure on his throat as one of the Paladin's closed it's fist slowly.

"And now Demon, your abomination shall be forever cleansed." The creature said with a hideous smile crossing it's features. The creature's grip closed ever tighter.

John felt himself begin to gag. Thankfuly the bio-body glove around his suit could provide him with enough oxygen for a limited time to keep him alive. But he was far from being invulnerable. He'd start to suffocate soon enough...

John felt a shudder and felt to the floor, cracking the tile and heavier metal flooring as he landed. The Covenant Paladins looked shocked but recovered. As one they lunged forward at him, ther staffs now boasting extended energy blades that made them into very deadly spears. John did not intend to find out if his shields could withstand all of those blades at once.

He was in a crouch, so he just jumped...straight up.

He rocketed upwards, off the ground and out of the way of the attack, straight up through the ceiling and into the second floor. John bounced off the ceiling and landed with a tumble into the floor. He rolled and came up, and began to fire his SM-1 on full auto through the floor. The energy rounds tore up the floor just as they had torn up the wall. Absently John noted that this house would be structurally unstable and would have to get out of here soon.

"Kell-mog-vont-alaa-shure!" John heard shouted a moment before a glowing fireball tore through the hole in front of him, ripped through the ceiling and lit all the flamable materials it touched on fire. John stepped back form the hole and was perplexed, what had done that?

"Magic..." Cortana said.

"That's always nice." John said and pointed the SM-1 down through a hole. In his mind he selected the most dangerous grenade he could think of and fired it straight down through the floor as he dove out the wall of the house and onto the roadway outside. Inside his helmet a small counter ticked off the seconds till detonation of the grenade. John landed, skidded and then slid to a stop against the curb of the street just as the grenade ticked down to zero.

A dull thump rocked the ground that he was laying on as the weapon went off. John rolled over and looked at the house. Inside he knew exactly what the grenade was doing. It was an Implosion Greande. Designed to cause a miniature gravity sink to occur and draw in matter just like the event horizion of a black hole. Everything within a ten meter sphere was drawn into the intense gravity field and crushed beyond all recognition into a miniscule lump of utradense matter.

The house rocked and collapsed in on itself. The gravity field only lasted for a few seconds, but it was enough. The house collapsed into a crater and John breathed a minute sigh of relief at that. Whoever these Paladins were, it was going to become the top priority of the Spartans to eradicate their ilk from the galaxy.

It wasn't going to be easy.

"Heathen demon!" John heard a voice scream from the rubble. John came upto his feet in a flash. His weapon ready for the battle. Out of the ruins of the house one of the Paladins emerged, his staff brandished

and ready for battle.

"Can't you die?" John growled.

"I shall take you with me demon." The Paladin said and leapt into the air as though he were pulled by wires. John raised his SM-1, but it was knocked from his grip by the hurled staff. The impact also knocked John down, it had been hurled with such immense force. John landed on the road and with his shoulders smacked into the curb, pulverizing the concrete.

John saw the Paladin dropping through the air towards him at incredible speed, there was no time to act. He could only react. His mind raced and the only unlikely solution he could come up with flashed into his head. Shifting slightly he braced his back against the ground and placed his feet on the undercarrige of a car that was sitting in the road. With a grunt of effort, the whine of servos and nano motors, John heaved the car upwards with one great force of coiled strength. The nano augmentations to his body, and the new armor were proving valuable. The car lifted off the ground and sailed into the air.

Right into the Paladin as it flew down towards him. The car's inertia overcame that of the Paladin and it began to go back up. John simply drew his SM-2 and fired off three rounds into the fuel cell of the vehicle, it detonated in a fireball high above. John nodded and knelt to retrive his SM-1 from the ground.

"You threw a car at it?" Cortana said in disbelief.

"Only option."

"Another one of your brutally simplistic plans." Cortana said.

John looked at his sensor screen and saw more blips comming towards him, all hostle.

"This is -117...I need backup now." John said as he raised his SM-1.

Chapter 5 is next...er...of course...

Chapter 5: The Covenant's Holy warriors...the Paladins...

This one is just for all of you who said the Spartans were too uber...Now you've see that they're not nearly uber enough. The most horrific forces in Sci-fi and fantasy melded together to form the perfect killing machine...one capable of facing down the Spartans in combat.

Genetic Engineering, cloning, demons, the occult, cybernetics, aliens, and sorcery come together into the most evil creatures ever conceved...

Pray for the Master Chief and the Spartans, they'll need it.


	7. Chapter 5: The Covenants Holy Warriorsth...

To, Ivan Alias: I did send you an Email, don't know if you got it or not. If you want email me so we can start discussing things about working together, I'd be thrilled.

Chapter 5: The Covenant's Holy warriors...The Paladins

* * *

Chapel Fortress, Precipice of the Galaxies End

Local time, Unknown

Location, Unknown

Paladin Acolyte Milliivi Shadow Slayer stood in the main assembly hall of the Chapel Fortress. His long hodded robes covering his head and eyes in shadow. The black robes were simple and clear of any marks. Around the edge of the opening of his hood green fringed it to symbolize his both his youth and victory. Down the back of his robes ran a long stripe of silver to symbolize the light and purity of his Clan in the Paladin order.

It was time for the communion of the orders. The communion to face the evil that stood in the way of the divine will of the Covenant Hegemony's holy duty. To protect the great Journey

Milliivi turned to the ornate window that looked out across the barren wastes of his home world. Far below the great mountain the Chapel Fortress had been built upon were the endless blowing sands of the great cleansing dunes. In that wasteland his forebears and ancestors had wandered as nomads in the hellstorm of sand, and the intense firey heat that beat down from the four suns that shone high above.

It was nearly ten thousand years ago that the Prophets had strode down from the heavens to the nomads in the deserts. In a single day they brought together the scattered wandering tribes and ended their fifty thousand years of wandering. And it was then that the Prophets had spoken to the united tribes and peoples, telling them that their suffering and wandering were at an end. Their travels had purified them and prepared them for their divine task.

The Prophets told the tribes that they were to be his instrument to ensure the sanctity of the Great Journey that would cleanse the stars and spirit the divine and pure to their deliverance. They were to be the holy tool of the Prophets to defend the children of the Covenant Hegemony from the demons and heretics that sought to annihilate

And so with those words the Prophets led those sacttered peoples through the deserts and to the great mountain named Precipice of the Galaxies End. They told the people before them that this would be their temple to prepare for their holy duties. The Prophets told them they would return when the Paladins were needed to defend the Great Journey and to protect the Children of the Covenant from a great evil.

Millivi stood at the ornate window and looked out at the sands. Even as he had been taught the words as a boy, he had never doubted the words that the Prophets had spoken. And now had come the time to defend the children of the Covenant from the great evil that lurked in the great beyond. The Paladins had taken up their arms to fight in the defense of the Covenant Hegemony and it's peoples from the evil in the universe. They knew that they were the truly divine and holy warriors of the Covenant Hegemony. They were the pure will of the Prophets, the guiding and cleansing blade of the Hegemony

He swept his eyes up from the blistering sands that whipped past the window and up to the complex artistry in the window. The window was slightly over one hundred feet high and fourty feet wide. Displayed on the window in carefuly crafety and delicately artisted and manipulated stones was Rillignant The Holy.

He was the first Paladin High Arbiter that had ever existed. He was the one that the Prophets had spoken to in the deserts after he had decended from the heavens to speak to the nomad peoples that were his ancestors. The Prophets had anointed him to be the first Paladin Holy Warrior.

Rillignant The Holy stood upon the window in his simple robes and pieces of hard shell armor, he was holding his shepard staff up to the heavens as the divine light of the Prophets shown down upon him. Even with his simple weapon and armor he had been prepared to fight against the evils that threatened the Children of the Covenant throughout the universe. His noble soul and spirit had been ready to die for the holy will of the Prophets. Millivi bowed his head in reverence for the holiest of all holy Paladins, merely to gaze upon his visage in stones and gem was to behold the very will of the Prophets themselves. He turned from the holy icon and looked down the main hall of the Chapel Fortress.

It streteched nearly two miles in length from the window that paid homage to Rillignant The Holy, all the way to the statue that stod and paid homage to the holy duty of thePaladins. Rillignant knelt before the form of the holy Prophets as they had appeared ten thousand years ago. Carved from the harsh, almost indestructable red stone of the mountain, it had taken eons to scratch away monument from the featureless stone edifice and to cover it with the inlaid gold and silver and to place the thousands of precious stones that now glistened in the flickering toches and flames.

The entire fortress had taken eons to carve and shape, it was still being worked now, far beneath his feet and deep under the shifting sands of the great deserts. The stone the mountain was carved from was nearly impervious to damage, harder than some alloyed armor plating, it had been painstakingly carved out with hand tools for over five thousand years of manual labor. It's intricate carvings and engravings into the eternal stone walls stood in testemony to the generations of warriors and artisans that had labored in the never ending quest to build the Chapel Fortress into an even grander edifice to the Prophets and their devine destiny for the Children of the Covenant.

The walls and ceiling of the grand chamber were carved with the intricate history of the Edagener people throughout the ages. The murals and carvings depicted the great triumphs of the Paladin warriors in the protection of the Covenant Hegemony from the demons that threatened it. The battles and struggles that had been lost in time shown on the walls of the grand chamber in minute detail, carved by warrior artisans long dead.

At intervals along the floor, pedastals rose up above the average seven foot hight of an Edagener, each one providing a resting place for a Paladin warrior. Their silvery body armor and simple silver robes glimmered in the firelight of the cavern. They stood stock still and immobile. Silent guardians of the grand chanber and the holy shrine that it really was.

Along the floor of the grand chamber was an elaborate mural depicting the greeat eons of wandering through the shifting sands. It was filled with carefully crafted shards of sandstone and light tan _jadeneade _stone. Along with precious gems and stones culled from the sands by wandering Paladins during their journeys of purification. It was the link between the grand window depicting Rillignant The Holy and the statue of the Prophets. The stones were an elaborate weave of lore and oral history that showed the scattered tribes as they had been brought together by the Prophets and finally united into the holy order that the Edagenerrace now consumed themselves with being.

Millivi walked from the window of Rillignant The Holy and down the center of the great chamber. His footsteps making the metaphorical journey from a wandering nomad to a divine instrument of the Prophets and guardian of the Childern of the Covenant. He took each step with careful measured speed and elegant grace. His sandals comming to rest upon the pebeled texture of the mural with less weight than that of a grain of sand. His steps took him down the center of the chamber and to the statue that rested there.

Four figures of the founding heads of the Edagener Clans rested there. Their holy forms stood both proud and reverent at the same time. The carvings each represented the four seperate clans of the Paladins, each one with it's own skills and talents. The forms were carved from the same stone as the mountain, the hard Rewopers stone encased in an outter shell varying colors, each symbolizing the founding attributes of their Clan. The pure figures were illuminated by a dual ring of fire that burned pure and holy white.

Millivi Shadow Slayer walked around the statues between the dual ring of white fire and nodded in reverence to the holy edifices.

His own Clan, Shadow Slayers shurouded in black stone polished to a deep clean finish. The Shadow Slayers were those who were the masters of stealth and killing heathen and demons with the silence of the void of space. They were masters of the invisibilty arts, silent focus and meditation. Their martial arts were of fluid movement, sudden strikes and the ability to swiftly kill and disapear into the shadows. They were truly the eyes of the Edagener Paladins.

He continued around the circle and to the statue of the Clan Viewers of Dreams, the statue encased in pure gold and shining in the light. The Viewers of Dreams were the divine eyes of the Paladins. Masters of deep meditation and able to focus their energies to view the fibers of the universe itself. Their talents were said to be capable of seeing through the clouds of time and space, even reality. They studied meditation and were posesed of deadly powers of the mind, even moreso than the average Paladin. They were the seers and diviners of the Edagener, the all seeing forces of the Paladins.

Millivi walked to the statue to the Clan Smiters of Evil, it was covered with finely polished silver. They were the tools of divine cleansing. While every Edagener Paladin was sworn to defend the Children of the Covenant and battle evil in all it's forms, the Smiters of Evil were the epitone of the tenets of the Paladin order and the Edagener people's faith. They were masters of every form of weaponry and mental powers that the Paladins were gifted with plus they were ruthless warriors and cunning tacticians in battle. Masters of both the physical martial arts, posessed of spiritual purity and mental powers all forged into the cleansing blade of the Edagener people.

The Shadow Slayer passed the final statue and knelt before it. This was the effugy to the Clan of Divine Gidance was sculpted and chiseled in perfect form and covered with deep sparkling ruby. The white fire shone off the stone and made it look like it was glowing from within. As was so true of the Clan of Divine Gidance. They were the clan of Rillignant the Holy, those whom the Prophets trusted implicity to guide the Edagener Paladins in their holy tasks. They were the leaders of the Edagener people and they were the word of the Prophets themselves.

Millivi Shadow Slayer stepped from the rings of white flame and once more continued the path down the great chamber towards his final goal. He moved with feather light steps across the cavern and up to the flight of sweeping stairs that lead to the grand statue that depected Rillignant the Holy making his solem vow to the Prophets. Millivi moved up the stairs with his head bowed low and his lips uttering the holy recant.

"I, Millivi, born of the Shadow Slayer Clan. Member of the proud and skilled Edagener peoples. Memeber of the Holy Paladin order. Servant of the Covenant Hegemony. Tool of the Great Prophets...." Millivi said as he walked.

"....I swore my soul and my everlasting salvation at the completion of the Great Journey. As my father swore upon his soul before me, and his father before him, as all members of the Shadow Slayer Clan have..." Millivi climbed higher.

"...just as all Edagener Paladins have sworn, their allegence to the tenents of the Hegemony..."

Millivi stepped onto a platform before the grand statue before him and knelt down on his knees. His face pressed down to the stone. He spalyed his clawed hands out before him, palms up in a symbol of service.

"...and to the protection of the Children of the Covenant from all evils that may threaten them with damnation and the fires of hell..."

"I, Millivi, of the Shadow Slayer Clan do once again swear my loyalty and everlasting devotion to the Paladin order, and to the eternal protection of the Covenant Hegemony from evil. I have sworn and do again swear my everlasting soul, both in this life and in the hear after to this solemn duty." Millivi said and rose up from his postion, raising his hands up to the ceiling of the great hall and to the Prophets high above in the galaxy beyond.

Millivi remained kneeling as the platform that he stood on sank down through the floor. The eons old mechaincs working with fluidic ease and master crafted presicion. This was the descent into the heart of the Chapel Fortress. The Grand Chamber was on the top most level, at the peak of the Precipice of Galaxies End. The heart of the Chapel fortress honeycombed the mountain and stretched deep into the bedrock. The small elevator descended for minutes, Millivi retaining his reverent position the entire journey.

Slowly, the dark shaft began to glow in muted light. It descended into another chamber, much smaller than the grand chamber, but just as intricately decorated and worked into a pure work of artistry. The small platform was risen off the main floor by a series of stairs that doubled as a flame-waterfall, burning oils flowed down either side of the stairs, into flaming pools around the feet of two more statues of paladin warriors. Millivi could tell they were of the Clan Smiters of Evil, their stone forms encased in exactly forged replicas of their silver armor and cloaked in the silver cloth that they were fated to wear.

Behind each of these statue warriors was a banner with the holy symbol of the Edagener Paladins. The large 'X' shape with the colors of Black, Gold, Silver and Red within each angle of the 'X'. In the center was a multi bladed spiral of blades. The symbolism of the banner was deep, deeper than any outsider could ever understand, even the Prophets themselves.

The Clans of the Edagener Paladins were seperate of each other in their talents, skills and disiplines. But they were united as a people, united thanks to the Prophets and their devine intervention. They were united together, and yet seperate out of necessity. The icon in the center was meant to symbolize the oath that the Edagener Paladins had sworn to defend the Covenant and serve the Prophets.

Millivi bowed his head one final time and walked down the stairs framed by the blazing waterfalls and between the Paladin statues. He entered a high vaulted corridor, lit at intervals by both the torches and tounges of flame that blazed out from holes in the wall. The corridor went down at a steep incline, it's smooth stone floor changing to finely hune stairs at some point. The deeply slanting corridor carried Millivi deep into the heart of the Chapel Fortress.

The Paladin had been walking for nearly a quarter hour when he finally reached the base of the stairs. The bottom leveled out and widened into another larger gallery. This long hall was filled with statues of Paladin Warriors. Their garb and color schemes differentiating between them. The statues sat in two long rows side by side stretching down the length of the long chamber. Millivi walked down the small 'avenue' between the statues, his own black robes soaking up the firelight as he walked, a shadow amongst statues.

Millivi turned and walked down one of the side portals and walked down the hall. The Shadow Slayer's gaze flicked to the rich red tapistries and inlaid rubies along the walls. Millivi bowed his head in reflex as he strode down the corridor. It was impulse as he neared the inner sanctum of the Clan of Divine Guidance. They were the voice of the Prophets. The lone Paladin walked through the corridor safe in the knowledge that the word he brought would be the most vital piece of information that the Edagener Paladins had ever recived.

The Shadow Slayer stepped out of the shadowed corridor and into a smaller antechamber, but no less grand than anything else in the Chapel Fortress. This was the antechamber to the shrine of the Clan of Divine Guidance. The chamber itself was a large hollow, carved out by natural forces and leaving a large natural bridge across the chasim. This natural stone bridge had been carved out and worked into an ornate causeway across the chamber that strectched down to the planet's molten core. Along either side of the bride were pillars that towered high above any Edagener that walked through, on these were deep red banners with the intricate bladed emblem representing the Prophets. Caping these pillars were crimson clad Paladins, their armor and robes a deep hue of scarlet. These were members of the Clan of Divine Guidance, and the solemn body guards of the Clan.

Along the center of the bridge was a mosaic that symbolized the journey of Rillignant the Holy from the great dune wasteland to the summit of the Precipice of Galaxies end. This was the journey that the simple shepard had undertaken to prove the resolve and strength of the Edagener people and their worthiness to be saddled with the burden of being defenders of the Covenant. Millivi walked to one side of it out of reverence for the trial that the Clan of Divine Guidance had undertaken, for that was their trial and none other's.

Millivi Shadow Slayer walked up to the massive stone doors that led to the inner sanctum of the Clan of Divine Guidance and knelt before the five crimson clad Paladins that stood before the large double doors.

"I am Millivi, of the Clan of Shadow Slayer. I have been summonded by the Clan of Divine Guidance to see the Paladin High Arbiter himself. By the name of the Prophets I request permission for entry." Millivi said with his head bowed low. The five Paladins that stood before the doors bowed their heads in unison. Four turned and pressed upon the doors. The finely balanced stone barriers slid apart with ease. Whereas moments before the stone doors had been so precisely tooled that they fit together less than a scale's width apart now swung wide.

"Rise Millivi, Clan of Shadow Slayer. You are permitted entry into the chambers of the Paladin High Arbiter, of the Clan of Divine Guidance. Pass with the approval of the Clan of Divine Guidance and with the blessings of the Prophets." The crimson clad Paladin said and stood to one side, his head bowed.

"I thank you Clan of Divine Guidance." Millivi said and walked pass into another corridor that lead upwards. This corridor was one of pure darkness, no flames were present to light the passage. Millivi climed the stairs with ease, and after turning around several times he stepped into a small circular room.

Compared to the rest of the Chapel Fortress the room was simple and bare. The red stone walls had been ground and polished to a high gloss finish and were prefectly smooth. There were no corners or angles in the chamber, merely the continuous circular orb.

Along the far 'wall' opposite the entry was a curved window, bare of any decorations or emblems, it looked out onto the harsh sands of the deserts below.

Seated nearer to the windows than the entry was the Paladin Holy Arbiter. The single Edagener Paladin that had been chosen by both election, noble standing, and power of his skills to be the leader of the Edagener Paladins. He hovered in the air far enough from the floor that his scarlet robes did not touch the ground. His black eyes were closed, their armored coverings had slid over them as he levitated, deep in medetative thought. He did not bob up and down in the air even slightly, as many normal Paladin would do, he was truly a master in all the skills and gifts that had been bestowed upon the Edagener.

Millivi took two paces into the room and knelt down, his snout touching the glass smooth floor and his hands splayed out in front of him. Through his mind, Millivi murmered incantations of calming and cantons of holy praise to calm his increasing nerves.

"Millivi, Clan of the Shadow Slayer. I am glad that you have returned safely and unharmed from your mission for the prophets." Paladin Holy Arbiter Eilivanit said opening his lidded eyes. The noble member of the Clan of Divine Guidance looked at Millivi with the gaze of a father looking at a son that had returned home after a long journey. Millivi raised his head and leaned back, crossing his legs and straightening in back.

He closed his eyes and focused, then levitated off the ground in a mirror image of the Paladin High Arbiter. They hoverd in place there for a few moments before Eilivanit spoke again.

"The Clan Viewers of Dreams have been having visions of the great evil that has befallen the Children of the Covenant, and threatens the Great Journey. They have spoken of the demons that stand against the Covenant. The great evil has finally shown itself." Eilivanit said.

"It has Paladin High Aribiter, I have seen the demon." Millivi said. The Shadow Slayer Clansman sensed the brief flutter of suprise flash through the Paladin High Arbiter.

"I see."

"The Demons known as the Spartans have been awakened, I have seen them in battle and I have seen their evil befall our noble Paladins. The threat to the Covenant has manifested itself. The evil calls itself the Sentient Coalition, the stand in the way of the Great Journey." Millivi said.

The Paladin High Arbiter nodded his head slowly, sending a brief flutter through the long crimson robes the Arbiter wore.

"So the time has come for the Holy War to begin." Eilivanit said and stretched out his arm forward towards the floor between the two hovering Paladins. The Arbiters hand seemed to crackle with holy energy for a few moments then fine tendrils of energy drifted from his clawtips and to the ground. For a few moments the energy drifted around the smooth stone floor before it began to slide upwards. The stone flowed up like liquid being poured from a glass into a clear mold. It flowed and moulded into two distinct shapes linked in combat.

The first shape was that of a Paladin of the Smiters of Evil Clan. The stone changing and shifting color into the gleaming silver of his armor and of his _Norifostraeh _Holy cleansing staff. The warriors grace and ability seemed aparent even in the inanimate stone. The warrior was locked in combat with the demon evil of the Spartan.

The stone had melded into the perfect form of a totally visible Spartan demon. It's armor colored to the strange neon green that its resilient plate armor posessed. The faceplate was the same cold and reflective gold that Millivi remembered. In it's hands the demon posessed the rifle weapon of unholy power that it weilded.

"This is what you saw, is it not Millivi, Clan Shdow Slayer?" Eilivanit said looking between the stone sculptures locked in combat to the other Paladin.

"It is High Arbiter." Millivi said.

"Tell me what occured at the Side 7 space colony. You were sent there as the Clan Viewers of Dreams foretold and divined from their visions. Tell me what happened there." Eilivanit said.

"Yes High Arbiter, on the honor and divine duty of the Edagener Paladins, I shall tell you all that I know." Millivi said and began to recant the events on the Side 7 space colony, and the battle against the Sentient Coalition.

* * *

Deep space, sunward of the Sol System Asteroid belt

Earth 397843495-464-578-454-4ARD

January 29th 2554, 0900 Hours UST

Millivi, Clan Shadow Slayer stood on the bridge of the Covenant Carrier 'Humble Vengence'. He stod sheathed in the dark black armor of the Shadow Slayer Clan, looking at the Fleet Master Eilr'amatanate with both an apraising eye and an apraising inner eye. His mind could sense the arrogance and pride that radiated off of the Elite commander. Millivi felt as though the warrior would drown in his own ego.

'Very confident in his abilites is he not?' Gilliviti said telepathically to his Clansman Millivi. The other member of the Shadow Slayer Clan responded with a mental shurug.

'It seems so ever present amongst all the members of the fleet.' Millivi replied. Gilliviti let out a mental chuckle.

'Yes, a dangerous flaw, pride when not tempered with humility is a fast way to reach one's obilivion far faster than one should have any buisness doing.' Gilliviti thought.

Millivi let out a barely perceptible nod and watched the battle as it was joined with the resident Human forces. The Paladin warriors could not help but feel that the battle seemed to be somewhat brutal. It was becoming a one sided slaughter against the human forces. With the superior technology of the Hegemony there was no way that the Humans in this Galaxy could resist and pray to their gods to win.

Millivi shook his head.

'I know that this is not the war that we have trained to fight Shadow Slayer.' Millivi felt the voice in his mind. He knew it to be that of Oilliriaj, leader of the fourty members of the Clan Smiters of Evil that had been sent by the Clan of Viewers of Dreams. The three members of the Clan of Shadow Slayer were there as their eyes. If the great evil truly did manifest itself here, they would be the messengers to return word to the Paladin High Arbiter at the Chapel Fortress Precipice of Galaxies End. The members of Clan Smiters of Evil would eradicate the foe if it dared raise it's demonic head.

'It does not seem to be...pure...' Millivi thought finding the thoughs of the wholesale slaughter of beings to be distasteful.

'No Shadow Slayer, it is not pure...it is a war unlike anything we ever thought the fighting would be like. Even if we are searching for the great evil, we must be prepared for the actions of the Prophets, no matter what form they manifest as being.' Oilliriaj replied. Millivi remained silent as he watched one of the smaller Human ships vaporized into molten slag under the fire of several differnet Covenant vessels. Millivi could feel the psychic shudder as so many lives were simply vaporized in an instant.

The wings of Seraph fighters and Yevethan D-Types slammed through the defending forces and danced in intricate ballets of death with the human...Mobile Suits...in a desperate battle for survival and victory. No matter what happened in this battle, the Covenant would win in conflict with these humans.

It was far too one sided, out classed, out numbered and out thought, the humans could never hope to stand against the fleet. The battle was over before it even started.

And five hours later as the last space colony fell it was readily aparent that the humans could not win. They sporaddic victories were not nearly enough to push the Covenant away. They fought valiantly, dying in great numbers with galantry and selfless sacrifice in the vain hope they could halt the wave of Covenant forces.

They failed.

"Blockade all Colonies and prepare for the final assault on the planet. We shall resume the offensive in two days. In the meantime, prepare for the full invasion of the 'Side 7' colony. That's what the Prophets are after." The Fleet master said and began giving orders to land forces on the Colony and gather the information and technology they were after.

'As are we.' Millivi thought to the others. He turned and left the bridge, the other Paladins following him to their ship.

The Fleet Master waited untill the Paladins had left the bridge before speaking.

"Paladins...we don't need their kind of scum..." The Fleet master grunted with distain. Supposedly memebers of the Covenant Hegemony, and yet they had never in their thousands of years of membership shown themselves as warriors in the hegemony. Instead they all babbled on about 'great evils' and their solemn duty to serve the Children of the Covenant.

Fleet Master Eilr'amatanate scoffed. They had never been needed before, as far as he was concrened they could cower within their mountain and wait for another five thousand years, the Covenant would never need their 'services'.

* * *

Chapel Fortress, Precipice of Galaxies End

Location, Unknown

Time, Unknown

"Did you sense any presence of the great evil?" Eilivanit asked. Millivi shook his head solemnly.

"No High Arbiter, I did not. I do not believe it would have made any difference had we known." Millivi said.

"I see, do continue Shadow Slayer."

* * *

Side 7 Colony

January 31st, 0959 Hours UST

Millivi stod atop one of the human structures within the immense space colony and looked out at the interior of the massive cylinder. The industrious nature of these humans was readily apparent in their awesom constructions. The interior of the colony could easily fit the three Cruisers that had blasted into it.

The Paladins had raised issue at the brutality of the slaughter of the occupants of the colony. But had been unheeded by the Fleet Master. Thankfully the momentary decompression had resulted in relatively few casuiltes as the hole was sealed. But some of the populace had not fled before the invading Covenant troops. More than one massacre had occured before the Paladins had been too sickened by the slaughter of civilans to interceed. The other Covenant soliders had been more than slightly annoyed with the intrusion and had opened fire upon the Paladins. The battles were short, brutal and very desicive.

None of the murdering Covenant Troops had walked away alive, the civilians had.

Millivi thought it problematic that the troops had been forced to fight the Paladins, but it was unavoidable, slaughter had not been something that the Paladins approved of even in the slightest. They were sworn to defend the Covenant from the great evil and to fight against those that would threaten the sacntity of the Great Journey. Not unarmed civilians, even if they were aliens, it was not the way of the Paladin to fight them, armed soldiers were another matter though.

'Millivi! IT IS HERE!' Millivi felt one of the Pladin mentally scream at him.

'The Great Evil!?!' Milivi could not help but feel a wave of fear wash through him then vanish. He nodded, then let his mind reach out and touch all the Paladins, then draw them towards the Great Evil.

'We are comming, be ready to cleanse this station of the great Evil that sullies it.' Millivi thought and set off. He leapt from low roof to low roof at incredible speed. As he moved, the incantations of invisibility were recited and he knew that all perception of him was being lessened and lessened, then simply removed. He was now invisible to all detection, by perception or mental powers.

'We are there Shadow Slayer, myself and six other warriors. We are ready to cleanse the Demon!.' Oilliriaj thought.

'Cleanse the taint Smiter of Evil.' Millivi thought in response. He leapt from one rooftop to the next and came upon the scene of the battle. He knelt along one ledge and watched as six elite Edagener Paladins entered into the battle. Millivi's eyes came to rest upon the evil. His mind immedieatly brought to the surface what this demon was called...

A Spartan...

As he watched the Paladins leapt into battle against the single demon. The movements and subtle combat was undertaken at such speed his eyes could barely track the motions. First one attached, his _Norifostraeh _Holy cleansing staff blocking the energy discharges from the demon's weapon. Then, the Paladin turned his own energy weapon upon the Demon, sending a bolt of cleansing fire towards the demon. It dove through the wall of one of the houses and out of the path of the cleansing fire.

The Paladins moved towards the wall and levitated out of the way as the demon sprayed unholy energy through the wall. Thye landed and crashed through the wall in response. Millivi closed his eyes and meditated for a moment, his inner eye stretching out and gazing through the walls at the battle within. IT was a furious combat, right up until one of the Paladin was killed by the Demon.

* * *

Chapel Fortress, Precipice of Galaxies End

Location, Unknown

Time, Unknown

"So it is true..." Eilivanit murmered.

"What High Arbiter?" Millivi asked.

"The Viewers of Dreams long ago prophisized that only the true great evil would be capable of killing a Paladin in combat. I gather that this is true at long last." Eilivanit said.

"Yes High Arbiter." Millivi said.

"Please finish, I wish to know what happened to the other 39 members of the Clan Smiters of Evil after that. As surely their kin and fellow Clansmen would like to know." Eilivanit finished. Millivi nodded and finished.

* * *

Side 7 Colony

January 31st, 1015 Hours UST

Millivi watched through his inner eye in horror. A Paladin had been killed at the hands of the Spartan. They truly must be the Demons of the great evil. Millivi continued to witness the battle. He took some satisfaction in the knowledge that the demon was soon to be eradicated, the remaininga Paladin were using their mental powers to suspend the demon and strangle the life from his unholy form.

A small smile reached his lips, the demon was of the great evil, he had been killed by a Paladin, but he was not invincible. Millivi was satisfied the demon would soon be finished...until he dropped to the floor and leapt through the ceiling and into the second floor. Millivi sensed the shock of the Paladins within the room. Surely it was impossible to wrest their mental grip from his form.

'How is this possible...' Millivi thought.

'Very simple Clanbrother...he is a demon of the Great Evil.' Tilliviti said, the fellow member of the Shadow Slayer Clan stood on the rooftop next to him. He was also gazing into the building, watching the battle.

'But how is it possible for this demon to resist so strongly?' Millivi asked as a firebolt summoned with the incantation of righteous fury was involked and smashed through the frail human building, igniting it.

'You know as well as I Clanbrother, the Edagener Paladins have trained for eons to prepare for this threat. Had it been so simple, the Prophets would never have entrusted the task to us.' Tilliviti said as the demon crashed through the wall of the building and slid out into the street.

Millivi watched as the demon stood and searched for it's weapon. It was unarmed now, eas-

The human structure collapsed in a burst of brilliant energy and tremendous gravity. Millivi felt as four of the remaining paladins were killed in a moment. He was shocked...

A single Paladin moved from the wreckage, his rage and fury rolling from him in waves unseen by ay but those with the hightened mental abilites of the Edagener. The warrior leapt high into the air, hurling his _Norifostraeh _at the demon. It knocked the demon to the ground and sent his weapon flying. It would be over as soon as the Paladin landed. Millivi was sure of this.

'I can sense your confidence Millivi, do not be so sure...' Tilliviti thought.

The demon moved in a small blur and kicked one of the primitive ground vehicles into the air, smashing into the Paladin of the Clan Smiters of Evil, knocking him higher.

Millivi watched as the demon drew another weapon and fired into the vehicle as it sailed through the air. The vehicle exploded and killed the Paladin. Millivi looked down and watched as the demon recovered his weapon and raised it to face the other Paladins that were approaching.

He felt the message tug at the edge of his senses... it was in an alien tounge but he knew exactly what was being said.

_"This is -117...I need backup now." _

'There are more...' Millivi thought.

'Yes Clan Brother...the Great Evil has far more than a single Demon too it's legions.' Tilliviti responded.

Millivi remained silent as twenty more Paladins ran towards the demon. Their footfalls were silent and fast, their _Norifostraeh _primed and ready. The demon alone would stand no chance. But he did not remain alone for long. As the lone '117' struggled against the holy forces of the Paladins two more of the demons appeared, each one weilding the same hellish weapons and more as they appeared. Three of these demons would not stand a chance against the Edagener Paladins. Millivi watched as they dueled.

Three Paladins struch against one of the demons as it weilded it's rifle...an...SM-1...and a blade...a...Bat'leth...His mind tentatively provided to him. The Curved weapon and rifle were lethal in the demons hands. Two of the Paladins slammed their _Norifostraeh _into the curved blade and pressed downwards against it. The third Edagener brought it's staff up, energy blade activated and attempting to slice the demon in half. He amost managed to connect with his blade when the demon brought it's SM-1 up and clubbed the Paladin across the side of the head with it. The Paladin, caught off guard by the unorthodox attack, was knocked aside and sent flying, before he could react the demon fired off his weapon and vaporized the Paladin.

Millivi winced at the sight.

More demons appeared, in all, eleven of them were battling the Paladins, now all of them were fighting in the melee. But even despite the whirlling shapes of the fighters, there was little to be seen in the combat. Neither side held a clear advantage. It was not going well for the Paladins, at least ten laid dead, with only twenty four of them remaining. But four of the demons were dead, with only seven remaining alive.

There was a chance.

Millivi watched as three Paladins were killed in two motions by one of the Demons. It weilded a deadly looking blade with fluid grace. A single downward slice decapitated a Paladin, while in the same stroke the pommel of the weapon cracked into the neck of another Paladin, killing him with a crush of bone and tendon. With another follow through the weapon stabbed forward and into the chest of another Paladin, smashing the armor and lodging in his hearts.

The Paladins body failed him but his mind remained whole enough... He reached up a hand and murmered the incantation of holy light. The faceplate of the demon glowed and a bright pillar of white light erupted from it's visor. Along the inner layer of the demons armor, cracks form and more light shot out. The demon released it's weapon and fell to it's knees. Millivi felt the pain and anguish was through the demon as it's evil existence was cleansed from this plane of reality.

'We can beat them, at a high cost we can beat them...' Millivi thought.

'How high a cost?' Tilliviti thought as four other Paladins were vaporized.

* * *

Chapel Fortress, Precipice of Galaxies End

Location, Unknown

Time, Unknown

"All the Clansmen of the Smiters of Evil at that battle were killed by the demons. Ten of the demons were annihilated, only the one that was known as '117' survived." Millivi said.

Eilivanit nodded.

"Throughout the ages the Clan Viewers of Dreams have always said that the battle against the great evil would be frought with danger, sacrifice and hardship..." Eilivanit said and turned in the air to look out the large windows at the deserts beyond.

"...the Viewers of Dreams always stated that the war against the demons would never be an easy one. And they always stated that to wage the Holy War against the demons would be to threaten our own existence with this divine crusade. But undertake this crusade we must do. Because we must undertake our duty to the Prophets and the Children of the Covenant. Our order was created to fight this great evil, and for eons we have prepared for this war..."

"...and now we must undertake it." Millivi finished.

"The Demon will be eradicated Shadow Slayer. The time has come for us to take the _Norifostraeh _in hand and carry out our eternal task."

* * *

And Chappie, I hope that was a little better than the last one.

Ivan Alias, send me an Email since I don't know if you got my last one...

Next up is Chapter 7: New Weapons, New Plan

The combined technology of the Sentient Coalition brings a new Navy and a new plan to fight...and win the war.


	8. Chapter 6: New Weapons, New Plan

All those little discrepencies that everyone is finding are typos. Most notably, the Spartan numbers were a slip, I added several and forgot I had 8.

As for the Cadian refernece in chapter 4, that was a typo, I meant Caridan. Not one of the Imperial Guard from Cadia, fortress planet standing before the Eye of Terror. I meant Caridan, elite stormtrooper training academy. (Which for all intents and purposes was not obliterated by Kyp Durron with the Sun Crusher. I didn't like that since the commanders of the Sentient Coalition Army and Navy are both natives of that planet.)

Oh, and I do not even know who Austin Powell is, so I'm not him. I'm just a humble little EMT from Pennsylvania.

And a few more notes:

I encourage all of you to read 'Reprocussions' by Ivan Alias, one of my new partners in the Far Flung Hope Saga. He is my expert on the Imperium of Man and Warhammer 40K. He's handling the backstory of the Imperium of Man's introudction into the next segment of the series... Far Flung Hope: Timultuous Peace.

I would also like to welcome Thug-4-Less as well, another partner in the FFH Saga. His own realm of expertise in Far Flung Hope: The Greater Good.

And Zelinko, if you could email me some time when you get a chance, I would like to discuss a few things with you. When it's convenient for you if that's possible. Thanks.

* * *

Chapter 6: New Weapons, New Plan

Yevethan/Covenant Shipyard Planetoid DS-164334

Starship dry-dock 23 of 57

March 10th 2554, 1300 Hours UST

Dockyard Master Vigent Hissar strode through the massive scaffolding works that surrounded the first in the new line of Covenant warships. He felt no small flash of pride at the industry of his Yevetha brotheren as they used their mechanical and technical prowess to combine the plethora of different technological advancements of the Covenant into one...very deadly craft.

The new Battle Cruiser class was the culmination of the Covnant's technological might. From the construction techniques and design, all the way to internal systems and weapons this craft was revolutionary. And it was one of 57 that was being manufactured at this immense shipyard planetoid.

Vigent walked along a scaffold and let his fingertips brush the blue-purple hull. Visually similar to normal Covenant Alloy armor, this was a new alloy that was infused with Durasteel and Titanium composites to further strengthen the hull. Even as Vigent ran his digets over the hull he could feel the slight resistance from the inertal dampening fields and low level shielding systems to further strengthen the metals. Ths was one of thousands of modifications to the Covenant Design policies that had been undertaken.

The very fact that there were willing to build a new class of capital starship was a divergence from the norm. From what the Yevetha could ascertain the Covenant had made due with five primary ship classes for over a millenia...but now things had changed...

Now it was war...

A war that the Covenant Hegemony was not exactly on the verge of winning spectacularly. More like a much longer and voilent conflict was in the making. And as such, the Hegemony required new weapons of war to fight them. Not that Vigent or any other Yevetha wanted to serve the vermin of the Covenant Hegemony...they had little choice.

But the chance to exact their revenge upon both the Empire and the New Republic at the same time was far to good an opportunity to resist. Vigent smiled and stepped off the scaffolding and onto a high speed grav lift, carrying him down from the massive arrays of scaffolding and into the spacedock.

"Dockyard master?" One of the engineers asked tentatively as he skittered up to the Yevetha. The member of the Race was much shorter than his Yevethan ally, but shared the reptilian appearence. The Lizard was covered in body paint that identified him as a senior Spacedock Supervisor.

"Yes, Senior Spacedock Supervisor?" Vigent said with distain he reserved for anything xeno, even if they were 'co-operating' under the leadership of the Prophets and the Covenant, it didn't mean that the Yevetha liked it. But in this case the ends fully justified the means. The dishonor of N'Zoth would be avenged with the enslavement or eradication of the New Republic and the Empire, and the return of theKoornochant Cluster.

"We're ready for launch. I assumed you would be intent on being present in the bridge?" The Spacedock Supervisor said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Vigent nodded and headed towards one of the transporter bays.

A pair of captured Federation Starships and less than a month of work had given the Yevethans, and the Covenant as a whole acess to the matter transporter technology. That was just one of many improvements and advancements that the Yevetha had built into the new Battle Cruiser Class.

Vigent stepped onto one of the pads and was transported three kilometers into the bridge instantly. He let a small smile escape from his stony expression. Yevethan engineers were some of the best in the Covenant. No other races could hope to have the same degree of technical or mechianical finesse.

The Dockyard Master looked around the control room at the crew members that were preparing for the initial launch. They were all Yevethan. Vigent nodded.

He looked up at the raised crew platform and then at the massive viewports that gave a 360 degree view of the ship. Even though the bridge was deep within the hull of the Battle Cruiser, the command crew still had a complete view of space around the ship. Right now all that could be seen were scaffolds and spacedock, but the scaffolding was being taken away rapidly. Soon it would be time for launch.

Vigent walked around the raised bridge platform and looked around the displays. On one hovering display he looked at the ship layout and damage assesment.

The form of the Covenant Battle Cruiser wasn't the long curved and elegant shape that the Covenant normally build their ships in. It was much more...predatory looking craft. The main oval shape of the center hull was flanked on both sides by a pair of crecent 'wings' stretching forwards. The centeral hull was a mere kilometer long, with the side wings stretching a further half kilmoeter forwards of them.

This design was very practical in it's intent. The design was so that the forward ounted weapons could function without interfeering with the main ships operations. The main armarment of the Battle Cruiser were two fire linked plasma projector turrets. These weapons were extremely unstable and barely beyond the experimental phase. They were very risky weapons to use, but they were capable of unleashing horrific amounts of damage against their targets.

The origional design was that of a normal plasma projector turret, but using capured data from a flagship that had been temporarily hijacked by the UNSC, they'd refined the firing systems and managed to make a much deadlier weapon. THe targeting and aiming systems were improved, and instead of being powered by standard plasma reactors, they were independently powered by a hybrid naquida/hydrogen powerplant.

All these modifications meant that these weapons were powerful, but...erratic...at best. And Erratic was an understatement. The power-cores had a limited reliable use time. Usually enough for ten discharges before they overloaded and detonated. But the real number was more in the range of four. After four shots, each plasma projector was useless, unless power was diverted from the main engines, but that took too much time to allow for sustained firing over a short period. But the weapon systems were still utilized for their immense power and killing potential.

Augmenting these were he usual array of plasma projector turrets that all Covenant Capital ships posessed. Eight of these powerful turrets ringed the front and side fire archs giving the Battle Cruiser another lethal punch, the plasma turrets on their own were more than capable of killing enemy capital ships on their own. Yevethan reverse engineered turbolasers and ion cannons also laced the Battle Cruiser, along with a series of phasor banks providing point defense and even shield penatrating abilites.

The offensive capabilites for the Battle Cruiser were equal with it's defensive capabilties. The superstructure of the BC was an Adumantium-Naquida alloy making it extremely resilient. Layered around that superstructure the hull was a basic Covenant Alloy, augmented with Durasteel, and Neutronium. Around the main hull was a layer of special ablative Trintium-Cortovite armor that had been designed to diffuse directed energy weapons, it was remarkably effective.

The redesigned shielding systems were a hybrid of Covenant, Goa'uld and Federation shielding devices. They had been re-engineered and redesigned combining their relative strenghts.

The impenatrable combination of energy shielding and heavy arnor plating, the Battle Cruiser was capable of absorbing a tremendous amount of punishment. And with it's revoultionary weapons systems and combined firepower it was capable of fighting the strongest ships of the Vermin Sentient Coalition.

The Yevetha dockyard master looked back at the engine readouts screen. All six of the Naquadria-Dilithium reactor cores were operating at peak capacity, giving the Battle Cruiser enough force to propel it through space with ease and manuver better than any craft even close to it's size.

Even though the Battle Cruiser class was nearly the size of an Imperial II Star Destroyer, it could move like a Federation Akira Class Phaser Cruiser. From what the Covenant Hegemony's intelligence networks could find, the Battle Cruiser could out manuver most capital ships in the Sentient Coalition arsenal with the exceptions of the New Republic Assault Carriers, Federation Intrepid Class, and the Human Alliance Iriquois class Cruiser. But it easilly outgunned all these ships.

Vigent looked around the bridge and nodded. The Yevetha counld never be faulted for their handiwork and craftsmanship. And with this powerful starship and it's hundreds of brothers entering service alongside the other thousands of ships in the Covenant Hegemony, there would be no stopping the Hegemony. The Sentient Coalition would be crushed beneath the weight of it's armies and Fleets.

Vigent smiled a vile smile. Soon N'Zoth would be avenged, and even sooner, the Vermin in the universe would have to watch themselves...

Because with every ship the Yevetha built, they learned their inner workings and designs. The Covenant would one day see the Yevetha revolt against them...and on that day the Hegemony would be toppled like the Empire, and the Yevetha would rule a universe cleansed of the vermin.

* * *

Covenant Hegemony Conscript Processing Facility, 1000-3410

Planet Atrians Prime - Annexed by Covenant Hegemony 9 Months ago

April 2nd, 2554 0500 Hours Local Time

They stood in neat lines. Their mixture of skin colors, body forms and even physical apperances lost to their identical stances of attention and in identical suits of body armor. They waited for their orders to file into their transport craft and begin movement to their main army groups in preperation for the Grand Offensive.

The 50,000 recruits in the formation had been forced into service from hundreds of newly conqured worlds in the ever expanding Hegemony territory. Many of them had been conscripted by the Hegemony to fight. Most were here at the threat of their homeworlds being annihilated bby Covenant Capital ships or wholesale planetary slaughter or enslavement.

They were here because they had to either fight or see their homeworlds destroyed before they were executed. And so they were here, to fight as ground troops in the war with the Coalition.

There were dozens of different species, most of them had origionally been human, but were subtle variations on the template the Forerunner Alliance had created to experement with. They had all been drawn from primitive planets, worlds that had barely developed firearms and organized society. They were strong and hearty people, needing little in the way of physical conditioning.

They stood there, in a tiger stripe camoflage black brown and white body armor. The armor was inferior to that of a basic Elite's body armor, but it was enough for the cannon fodder soldiers that were in it. Each one carried a Covenant Carbine tipped with a plasma bayonet and a few plasma grenades. Beyond that there was nothing else that these soldiers were issued. They were expendable in the eyes of the Covenant, forced conscripts and nothing more.

The two months they'd spent at the processing facility had been spent within special training tanks that pumped their minds with information via neural links. The tanks had built in monostym units that treated their muscles with energy waves, enhancing their development. Steroids and synthetic grown hormones were introduced into their bodies and furthered their development.

These troops were to storm into Sentient Coalition positions and drown the enemy in men and blood. They were there to die by the hundreds, if not thousands, storming through built up urban worlds and cities. They were to be the faceless legions of the Covenant, the meat that was fed into the grinder as the line forces made it into contact with the enemy.

And they would do so willingly. Their veins were filled with pshycotropic drugs and mind altering chemicals that completely wiped their minds free of any personal thoughts or memories. The only things that they thought or knew were simple.

Kill the Enemy.

Serve the Covenant.

Those were the only two thoughts that ran through their minds. And they abided by those thoughts without hesitation. The Covenant Hegemony had a fanatically loyal and brutally effective miliary that could rival the Sentient Coalition, if not in technological development and training, then in raw numbers and sheer mass.

"I do not like this." Elite Ulit'Pullintanem said to his cohort, Lilit'Eliitlrant.

"What do you not like about it?" Lilit said. The pair of elites stood on a platform in front of the neat lines of mindless drone conscripts before them.

"Them. They have no loyalty of their own, no choice in fighting or not fighting...they have no minds, or probably souls anymore." Ulit said casting a weary eye upon the faceless armored ranks of humans and other scum that had been conscripted into the Armies of the Covenant.

"Exactly, they're of the same amount of use as the Grunts. Except for every single grunt or jackal, there are a thousand of these." Lilit said.

"And for every one of us, there are ten thousand of them." Ulit said with a sneer.

"So? Why do you worry so? They are mindless husks, their job is to die by the hundreds of thousands to take objectives if needed. They have no place in the Hegemony beyond the level of slaves. The drugs and chemicals in their brains and systems keep them mindless and open to the orders of the Hegemony."

"Because...what happens if the drugs wear off?"

"They're brain dead already, the drugs just make sure that no lingering traits of their sentience remain. The Goa'uld know how to do these things perfectly."

"How can we be sure?" Ulit said and placed his hands on the railing of the platform. His eyes looked out at the legion of humans and other scum before him. Lilit remained silent as he too looked out at the legion that stretched out before the two of them.

"How can we really be sure?" Ulit asked again. Lilit shook his head.

* * *

Covenant Hegemony Temple for the Divine Crusade

Covenant Holy City 'Epioch of the Heavens'

April 14th 2554 1500 Hours UST

The Temple for the Divine Crusade was the Covenant Hegemony's Command and Control center for all it's miltary forces. Unlike the military High Command for the Sentient Coalition, the Temple for the Divine Crusade was a mixture of holy edifice and command center. The massive forms of the upper temple and chapel gave way to the deep networks of halls, passages and hardened bunkers that honeycombed the bedrock beneath the temple.

Nearly four kilometers down, beneath layers of adumantium and reinforced shielding systems, the central command center seemed to be something of a mix between a secluded monastary and an advanced technological achievement, in many ways it was both.

The main bunker was a large open space that was dominated by a huge hologam that showed the current expanse of Hegemony territory. The main domain of the Hegemony was broken up into smaller spashes that had been taken by the various lesser members. These lesser campaigns had all blunted up agianst the large territory controlled by the Sentient Coalition. The large field of green appeared to be an insurmountable enemy, penetrated by mere tendrils that had taken a few systems.

Aroudn this main hologram were work stations manned by Elites. Ever since the Protoss treason, the prophets had not let anyone outside the inner core of the Covenant have such un-impeeded acess to the Command and Control networks of the Hegemony. A hard lesson learned, but not one that would soon be forgotten.

The displays and controls manned by the Elites were the nexus of all Covenant battle operations, from this room the enitre Covenant War machine was at the beck and call of whoever controled it.

And it's control sat in his levetating throne, watching down on the Elites and taking in the movements of fleets and troops on the large universe hologram. The Prophet of the Divine Crusade watched with deep concentration as the Hologram changed it's positons and altered slightly with each passing moment, every fleet and army was displayed in real time. If needed, the Prophet of the Divine Crusade could pull up the information on a single planet, with every force concentration and objective displayed.

But right now, the Prophet of the Divine Crusade was more concerned with the grand strategy he was formulating.

The Prophet gestured to one of the control units and a small holoprojector hovered up. It activated and began to list the newly marshaled force strengths that had been made available. With a careful examination, he estimated that 459 Sector Armies - an equivalent of almost 950,000 conscripted personnel, and 50,000 core Hegemony Troops...per Sector Army - were capable of being moved into a battle front nearly seven galaxies in area. He switched to the Naval listings, and noted with some satisfaction that 196 pure Hegemony Battle fleets were available with 150 vessels each, and nearly 300 'allied' fleets of varying strengths were also available.

The Prophet nodded. He was willing to move all these forces away from the front lines and prepare for the offensive.

The High Council had given the Prophet a very free hand in defeating the Sentient Coalition. he was the most briliant Strategist among them and had proven his abilites in the early campaigns against the newly formed Coalition. And right now, that free reign was about to be taken to it's extremes. His intent was simple and brutal.

A mased assault along a seven galaxy front with more troops than the Coalition could combat. The Campaign was aimed at burning it's way through the major population centers of the Coalition and it's industrial hearland. A basic scorched earth approach.

Invade a world, take any technology, then move on, thus leaving a devestated swath of worlds and galaxies in the fleets wake.

"Sangheili." The prophet said to a passing Elite.

"Yes prophet?"

"Issue orders to move these forces into sector 43-12A."

"Yes, Prophet."

The Prophet of the Divine Crusade looked at the holo map again and thought about how long this campaign would take to begin...

Thirty days.

* * *

Sentient Coalition Deep Space Shipyard

Deep Space Near Regile 4 Nebula, Galaxy 34254325211

April 4th 2554 1900 Hours, UST

Shipyard facility Alpha-32-932 had started it's life as an Imperial Deep Space shipyard facility. Then, it had been captured during the fighting with warlord Zinji, then recaptured by the Empire during the war with Grand Admiral Thrawn. But right now, it had been thrown into use as a shipyard for the new class of Coalition ships. For a shipyard, it had seen quite a lot.

Since the end of the war with the Yuuhuzan Vong and the contact with the Coalition, the Empire greatly expanded the workings of Alpha-32-932. Using conventional construction methods, along with new alien technology, the workings of Alpha-32-932 had multiplied exponentially.

"My, my, my, I remember standing here as the superstructure for the _Thrawn_ was laid." Grand Admrial Anjek said to himself.

"Sir?" Admiral Dhas'Kitrans asked.

"I never thought I would see the day where we were building Super Star Destroyers again Admiral." Anjek said looking at the other Imperial Admiral in his perfectly cleaned and squared away black uniform, a sharp contrast to the pure white uniform that Anjek wore.

"Not just one Grand Admiral. Four." Dhas'Kitrans said with a smile. He looked out through the Transperisteel viewport at the four epic spacedocks far below and the vague skeletons that represented the budding forms of the _Piett, Vader, Palpatine, and Gredge_. Even in their bareuly built state, the massive forms were immense.

But even the massive forms of four Super Star Destroyers seemed to be dwarfed by the sheer multitude of construction projects underway. From nearly 30 Star Destroyers of various class under construction to the forms of Asguard starships, Federation and Klingon starships, and even several New Republic warships.

"And alongside the ships of the New Republic and even alien races we'd never thought possible." Anjek said. Dhas'Kitrans nodded.

"It is truly amazing Grand Admiral. Truly amazing. I wonder what the galaxy would have been like had we never met the UNSC, if we had never joined the Sentient Coalition." Dhas said.

"Well, such is the work of those 'alternate historians' or whatever they're called. I do believe there was a very interesting story of what would have occured had the Rebellion been crushed...ah, it was such a good story." Anjek said with a slight shake of his head.

"Who wrote it sir?"

"Turtledove, or some such person. But back to the matter at hand. We were here to meet with several technical advisors to speak about the new upgrades to our Star Destroyers. The Mk. IV now, amazing machines." Anjek said looking at the spacedocks.

"Didn't you begin your command in a Loranar Strike Cruiser sir?" Dhas asked."Yes, but I do love the form of a Star Destroyer. It's so imposing, a very nice thing to have in a battle. And with some of the rumors I've been hearing about upgrades we've gotten, they'll be unstoppable in a battle." Anjek said.

"Given the augmentations that have been provided to your already formidable craft, that is a distinct possiblitly, Grand Admiral." Anjek heard a strange voice say from behind him.

"Well, Supreme Commander Thor, I hadn't expected you to trouble yourself with appearing." Anjek said and turned to look at the diminutive alien. Anjek couldn't help but feel that for as hideous looking as Thor was to him, he must look just as odd to the alien.

Anjek had always garnered the reputation as a human skeleton. His shaved head and face devoid of any facial hair, and with his sickly pale skin, he looked like more bone than man. His eyes were sunken and recessed behind a pair of primitive specticals. And since he was over seven feet tall, and devoid of the weight to fill that amount of human out, he looked decidedly disturbing to his own people, let alone aliens.

"Yes, since your forces have begun construction of serveral Asguard vessels within your shipyards makes us exceedingly greatful." Thor said.

"We're more than greatful for the technological assistance you've given us in the construction of the Imperial Mk. IV Star Destroyers, and our new Super Star Destroyers. Your new techniques of armor construction, shielding and weapons engineering will make the Covenant rue the day we became their enemies." Anjek said.

"Indeed." Thor replied.

"I would like to show you one of our new Imperial IV's that has just finished construction." Anjek said with a smile.

"I would very muhc like to see how your engineers have expanded and improved your military forces." Thor said. Anjek smiled and led the way to one of the teleporter units within the space dock. The size of the docks made normal transportation impossible, hundreds of ships and thousands of kilometers of docks meant that the nearly 2 million shipyard workers and 3 million droids needed something faster to move around than shuttles and internal means. This transporter system had been developed from the Federation.

The mismatched pair stepped into the transporter and were moved to the bridge of the Star Destroyer 'Exellence', the first completed Mk. IV Star Destroyer.

Outwardly it looked similar to any imperial Star Destroyer, sunken crew pits and main walkways for the command staff. But in adition to the basic design that was ever present on nearly every imperial starship that he had ever commanded, from a Carrack Cruiser to a Super Star Destroyer there had been additions, all for the better.

The main command walkway that bisected the crew pits had been lined with holo projectors which could display everything from damage readouts to crew listings, piping every bit of combat, ship and tactical data available into the bridge and to the eyes of the Commander.

This was a departure from the normal vein of imperial command and control doctrine which stressed that the only nexus of combat information should occur with in the commanders head. The theory was that would limit the ability for the information to be disrupted by EMP or other electronic warfare. Unfortunately, this severely limited the capabilites of the ships within a fighting force.

Anjek looked down into the crew pits and smiled at the much more advanced systems that they boasted. It was a quantum leap away from any previous systems that he'd seen...even theoretical ones. Tachyon faster-than-light control systems obliterated any kind of lag time in controls, and the durability of the systems meant that they were incredibly hard to knock out in battle. They even had the added bonus of being nearly 1/100th the size of conventional systems, freeing up hull space from computer systems and command nets to armor, power and weapons systems.

The Mk. IV's incorporated some of the most inovatve and lethal weapons systems of the Coalition, from Human Alliance Rail Guns, to X-Com disruptors, and Tollan Ion cannons. They were capable of laying waste to any fleet that had been fielded during the Galactic Civil war. Nothing could hope to touch the firepower or destructive potential of a Mk. IV Imperial Star Destroyer.

"I must say Grand Admiral Anjek, your designers have very quickly incorporated every piece of new equipment that they have acess to into your fleets." Thor said looking at the readout holograms and other displays as they hovered around his short form.

"It was not easily done Supreme Commander. I may be the Supreme Commander of the Imperial fleet, but it seems as though I need to be Palpatine reborn to hope to get half done that I want done. It took me three months of negotiation, resolution, and even threats to get the designs for the Mk. IV's approved. If it hadn't been for the Covenant, I probably would still be in negotiation with the ministry of finanace." Anjek said with a smile.

"You're a good negotiator then Grand Admiral?" Thor asked.

"You might say that. My area of expertise is in Psychological Warfare. Psy-Ops. It's said that the eptome of strategy is not winning a thousand victories with a thousand battles, it's winning a thousand victories without fighting a battle. I like to think that a master of Psy-Ops will never win a victory, because the enemy has already given up, and will never take to the field." Anjek said with a smile.

Thor looked at the Imperial Grand Admiral with the Asguard equivalent of an apraising gaze.

"And yet your are also a master Tactician and Strategist Grand Admrial. I can safely say that you are a hero to the UNSC and the deciding factor at the battle of UNSC Earth and the Counter Attack of Reach. You're one of the most brilliant military minds I have ever seen." Thor said.

"Your point Supreme Commander?" Anjek asked looking away from the shipyards beyond the viewports and down at the small alien.

"With the formation of the Sentient Coalition, there is a need for a united military effort. As such, the commanders of the main military branches must be combined and placed in a central location to coordinate the efforts of the military. I was hoping that you would be willing to become the Supreme Allied Commander of the Coalition Naval Forces. You'd be in charge of every naval action and space fleet in the war against the Covenant." Thor said.

Anjek blinked and looked back out at space.

"Why me?" Anjek asked.

"Because you are the greatest military mind I have ever seen or heard of in relevance to space combat." Thor said.

"So you'd place an Imperial in command of the greatests naval forces in anyone's known history?"

"I am aware of the rather...distrubing history that your Empire has. But I have noticed something very intersting, you only paid your people's Xenophobic tendencies lip service when you needed to. You served the Empire because of your own family's crusade to end it's internal civil war. But you did hate the rebellion with a passion..." Thor said. Anjek scowled at the alien.

"The Rebelion was murder and it tore our family apart. Do you know how many died when Skywalker torpedoed the first death star? Almost a million people died at that moment. Soldiers and starship crewmen that were doing their jobs. My family lost sixteen sons and daughters. But the war is over now...peace has been made between the Empire and the New Republic. And the Anjeks and the Complins are finally family again... That war is over and now we have a new enemy to fight. For the Complins and the Anjeks, there is always another war to fight, another enemy to defeat..." Anjek said.

"Yes Grand Admiral, and the Sentient Coalition wants you to lead the war against the Covenant. Will you lead the Navies of the Coalition against them?" Thor said. Anjek kept staring out at the stars for a long time after that. But he did nod ever so slightly to answer Thors' question...

* * *

Sentient Coalition High Command,

Flimar System,

April 15th 2554, 1500 Hours, UST

The main nexus of the Coalition's military effort was centeralized much the same as the Covenant's own military. Although the biggest difference was that the Coalition's HQ was a purely military endeavor, there was no symbolism and no grandure. Coalition Command was a military center and nothing but. But there were small luxuries for those whose duty was to coordinate and direct the full force and might of the Coalition and vanquish the Covenant threat.

And right now, the Conference room that was inhabited by the Joint Chiefs of the Coalition was an example of that luxury. Everything from fine leather and expensive Grell wood...to platinum and gold were incorporated into the luster and noble sense of the room.

Of course none of the officers inside the conference room gave a damn about some fancy leather seats or a conference table top that was as slick as ice.

Grand Admiral Kurrs Anjek sat facing the floor to ceiling windows that looked down on the main control center for the war effort. multiple holograms showed fleet and army dispositions and their locations. Everything from a Tau offensive in one sector to the continuing campagin against a Goa'uld stronghold were shown throughout the control center. Hundreds of soldiers were present in the room beneath him, but Anjek couldn't hear them above the argument going on in the room around him.

Right the room was engulfed in a massive argument over how exactly they were going to fight the Covenant effectively.

Chief of Aerospace forces seemed as though he was going to rip apart the Chief of the Marines. Although in a battle between X-J2423-FP, -the former Commanding General of the Human Alliance's own fighter wings-, and General Vitrans -the former organizing commander of the Federation Marine Forces-, it was a little hard to distinguish what they started fighting about...

"I don't care about how tough our marines are, you can't board a ship without fighter cover."

"And you can't take a ship without marines!"

"Enough." Anjek said softly. His voice was tinged with the soft tones of obedience that had made him one of the most formidable commanders in the Imperial fleet, and perhaps one of the most dangerous next to Thrawn himself.

The bickering halted as Anjek turned arund in his chair to look at the table. There were six beings seated around the circular conference table. Anjek looked around at the beings...

X-J2423-FP was of course, overall commander of the Sentient Coalition fighter wings and Aerospace forces. The sentient machine had an encyclopedic knowledge of every type of starfighter and space interceptor utilized within the Coalition, from X-Wings, to Zaku II mobile suits and beyond.

General Vitrans was an Andorian, and one of the more militant commanders at Starfleet Command, which right now was proving to be a substantial asset to the Coalition. The General had been highly pleased with the Marine forces under his command, from Klingon and Human Alliance Marine forces, to some of the most highly disciplined and lethal USS and Imperium marine forces.

Sector General Vallin Complin sat silent and was also gazing out the window down into the command center. He had been a former commander in the New Republic Army and a major proponent of extensive reforms and changes to the New Republic military. The legendary ground commander of the Battle of UNSC Earth was an unassuming man that didn't say much, but when he did you'd better listen. Anjek nodded to his long estranged cousin and recived a nod in return. The Chief of the Army was a man that was willing to do whatever it took to defeat the Covenant.

General Riton Calarathi was a Trianii, and former member of the New Republic Special Forces. The massive tiger like alien had an extensive and highly decorated history of battle and combat with the New Republic. He had a reputation of ruthlessness and viciousness in combat that rivaled Imperial Storm Commandos. His experiance and familiarity with special operations made him the natural choice to command the Special Forces of the Coalition.

Spartan - 9421 sat silent and fierce in his Next Gen MLJINOR armor. No emotion or outward apraisal of the situation could be garnered from the Noghri Spartan. The representative of the deadliest military organ in the history of the universe had nothing to say at the moment.

"Gentlebeings...right now we need to come up with a plan to dedicate an offensive against the Covenant and make some positive progress in this war. The Coalition Senate is very adament about this matter." Anjek said.

"Yes, and right now we've stonewalled the Covenant on every front and our special forces are making deep strikes against their support networks." General Calarathi said.

"Pinpricks and nicks in the immense organism that is the Covenant. We need a desicive blow to send them reeling. I recommend a large scale raid against four planets at a vital spacelane nexus. Two marine divisions backed up with a moderate fast action force. We can disrupt the front line army forces against the Coalition across ten different sectors for a period close to six months." General Vitrans said.

"So you recommend that we sacrifice two marine divisions in a raid? They'll be wiped out within a few days of planetfall." General Complin said.

"Gentlebeings. I don't suggest a limited strike as a show of force. I suggest a decisive blow that has the potential to throw the entire Hegemony into dissarray and give our forces the ability to erradicate a massive number of Covenant military units." Grand Admiral Anjek said. With a few keystrokes a hologram appeared above the conference table showing a thousand lightyear stretch of frontline. Ten Covenant Army groups and fifteen fleets were deployed along the length opposing thee Coalition full strength sector armies and five fleets.

Neither side was in a position to advance, but there was a massive buildup of Covenant forces along the front.

"Intelligence shows that the Covenant are mobilizing for a massive assault along our front lines. We believe that this assault will occur within three months. But we have no idea where it will come from. As Spartan -9421 can attest, we need more time for our Elite forces to pin down where this threat will strike."

"We've been able to pin down a location of the Command center that's coordinating the front that the Covenant refers too as 'Sector 43-12A'. Spartan recon teams have managed to identify that over 400 Covenant armies and over 200 fleets are being moved into this area. If we are to disrupt this offensive we need to strike at this command center." Spartan -9421 said.

"Why haven't you done so?" X-J2423-FP asked.

"Unfortunately the command center is based on a Covenant Mobile space facility and Shipyard. And due to the previous strikes carried out by Spartan -117, security has been rapidly increased to the point that we're unable to infiltrate the facilty to destroy it." -9421 said.

"Which comes to my plan. I recommend sending a small scale strike force of twenty to fourty ships, along with a compliment of marines and Spartans to take this station and destroy it. Doing so should be enough to throw the Covenant offensive into dissaray and give us time to move reinforcements into the area." Grand Admiral Anjek said.

"What's the probablitly of the Covenant assault occuring before we can send in a strike force to take the station?" Calarathi asked.

"Marginal at best." -9421 replied.

"How long do we need to mobilize reinforcements against this offensive?" Vitrans asked.

"One month will give us an additional ten sector armies of various strengths, roughly twelve million soldiers. Along with twenty more naval detachments, approximately 200 ships. Two months could give us three times that many soldiers, provided we can shuffle troops away from other sectors nearby." General Complin replied.

"Gentlebeings, we need to move on this situation as fast as possible. Otherwise this sectory may be overrun within four months. And if that occurs, the Covenant has a straight line run through two galaxies, both of which are rich in Naquida, Elerium, and Dilithium. They also posess signifigant urban centers and industrial capacity. Losing them could destabilize our hold along this front and set back our military efforts in this sector...if not tip the balance of power so far into the Covenant's hands that we could lose control of the area." Anjek said.

The nods around the table were enough for the Imperial Admiral to begin mobilizing the forces.

* * *

And Chappie...

Next up; Chapter 7: Overconfidence and Ambush... The Covenant Assault begins...


	9. Chapter 7: Overconfidence and AmbushThe ...

Chapter 7: Over Confidence and Ambush... The Covenant Assault begins...

Bridge of the _HASS Hours_, Iriquois Class Battleship,

Hyperspace somewhere 15,000 lightyears past the Coalition/Covenant Frontier,

April 30th, 2554, 0600 UST

Admiral Marius von Burnowl looked out through the viewports of his command Battleship at the 'non-space' that was hyperspace. The infinite realms of non-tangible space were something that always fascinated the human. His eyes were taken in by the almost hypnotic patterns that came to light.

But the Human Admiral couldn't afford the luxury of letting his mind wander at this point. They were less than a minute out from the final course correction that was required in their journey.

High command had planned to have the taskforce take a circuitous route to attack the Covenant Command center. It was hoped that such a course would carry them around the bulk of the Covenant forces in the area and allow them to suprise the Covenant. With the increasing number of Covenant fleets that had begun to flood the area, the likely-hood of the taskforce reaching it's target without detection was slim.

But they'd beaten all odds and were now about to lauch a suprise attack on the Covenant Command station. If they took it out, then they could buy enough time to organize a defensive action.

"All stations report battle ready Admiral." The ops officer informed him.

"Good." Admiral von Burnowl said and turned to face the forward viewscreens. They too mirrored the hypnotic non-space of hyperspace, but hovering near one corner was a hologram that ticked down the time until reversion to real space.

One minute, thirty seconds remaining.

Admiral von Burnowl walked towards his command chair and sat, his eyes focused on the viewport ahead of him. He sat silent and waited until the fleet droped from hyperspace.

The battle plan was simple. The main assault ships that would carry the marines to take the station would be a pair of Imperial _Viber-_Class assault cruisers- carrying elements of the 143rd 289th and 642nd Imperial Space Trooper squadrons, 98th, 103rd, and 311th Imperial Armored Marines, and elements of the 195th Imperial Stormtrooper Division - and a pair of X-Com Patton class Cruisers - with 15 tactical squadrons from X-Coms own frontier Marine unit the 'Xeno-Skinners'.

These assault units would jump in and make a straight line to the Command nexus and start landing forces to take the facility. The other fifteen ships in the squadron would maintain space superiority unti the landing parties could plant thorium charges at specific spots within the superstructure and destory power control centers that would hopefully destroy the massive structure.

Two New Republic Assault carries, loaded with K- and E- wings, three Imperial Mk. I Star Destroyers, a new Imperial Mk. IV Star Destroyer, the Iriquois Class Battleship _Hours_, and it's three cruiser class escorts would maintain space superiority for the marines to do their dirty work and get out.

Conservatively, the mission should only take four hours, more than enough time to get in, and get out alive.

Ten seconds.

"All hands, brace for real-space re-entry." A voice said across the ships comm systems. Von Burnowl sucked in one last breath of air before the starlines and endless dancing of hyperspace reverted to realspace.

His eyes danced around nervously and expected to be laced by fire from all quarters...but there was nothing, nothing other than the massive command station before them.

"All troop ships, full speed to the station, board it and deal with the defenders. You have the timetable and your objectives. Good luck and godspeed." Von Burnlow. The Admiral looked on as the troopships carried their warriors towards battle.

Imperial _Viber_- Class Assault Cruiser A23-32, Mision Start 00:00

SpaceTrooper Sgt. 24231 carefully checked his armor's systems one last time before the Cruiser got into position to disgorge his team and the rest of the squadron into battle. The heavily armored and shielded SpaceTrooper armor was the foremost weapons system that a Zero-G Spacetrooper utilized. Space Troopers had a fersome reputation amongst other Imperial units, even other StormTroopers because of their training, equipment and ruthlessness, it was second only to the imperial guard in it's regimen of training and span of duties.

SpaceTroopers were the elite of the Empire's boarding forces. And right now they were going to participate in their largest action since the battle of Sulust Van under Thrawn.

"All units, prepare to disembark." A voice ordered over the armor's internal speakers. On the heads up display in the helmet, targets and objectives lit up along with readouts and displays of weapon power and squad information. A small screen gave a list of objectives to achieve and information on each. Currently, four objectives were there.

Board the Station.

Secure indicated transit hub for marines.

Hold until explosives were deployed.

Withdrawl in good order.

All of these objectives would be easy to achive for the Space Troopers. They would have acomplisihed much more if the need were required, they would even die at their posts if the need required. Their indoctrination was that strong.

"All units, begin operations." The voice ordered as the power couplings to the fifteen trooper squad detached and the airlock doors opened to hard vaccum. A few small tendrils of gas and vapor escaped as the doors retracted.

Without the need to communicate, the squad engaged their thrusters and approached the station. All along the sides of the Assault Cruiser hatches had opened and thousands of Spacetroopers in armor were flooding out towards the Covenant battle station. The Cruiser was a mere thousand yards away from the hull of the station, nearly close enough to ram into eachother if the helmsman slipped, but the close quarters gave the spacetroopers a much shorter trip, and a much greater chance of survival.

Between the abyss of space between the two vessls, blue ion cannon fire errupted along specifically cleared passways. The ion cannon fire was designed to disrupt life support and gravity systems aboard the Covenant battle station in the boarding areas, giving the Imperial Space troopers a distinct advantage.

Sgt 24231 guided his armor towards their identified breaching point and accelerated. The longer they were in freefall with no cover, the more likely the Covenant defenses could activate and start shooting. The preliminary bombardment by the Cruisers had dealt with most of the defensive emplacements, but experiance always showed that 'most' and 'all' were far enough apart to be deadly.

The Sgt. and his squad landed on the hull without any Covenant emplacements opening fire on the approaching spacetroopers. The Sgt. disreagered that and moved towards the entry hatch. The magnetic boots of the armor afixed to the hull and allowed the spacetroopers to move without difficulty. They fanned out in a combat wedge as other troopers landed around them, all headed for their own objectives.

They reached the hatch and Spacetrooper 9023 moved up and removed the Plasma Punch from his armor. The large piece of equipment was a one shot plasma generator that could punch through starship armor and make a hole large enough for a spacetrooper to enter.

With practiced speed, 9023 placed the Punch and activated it. The space around the hatch flared bright white as it acivated and burned through the Covenant armor in a second. The puch then ejected itself and flew into space, clearing the acess point.

Atmosphere vented from the massive ten foot in diameter hole before any seals could engage to keep it in. The sgt. noted with some pleasure as Grunts, Jackals, and even Elites were blown out into vaccum, writhing for a few moments as they tried to breath nothing before dying.

He gave the go order and the fifteen man team moved into the space station. Mechanically they expanded into the hallway, fanning out into a staggered formation. The Hallways in the Covenant Space station weren't wide enough for the squad to maximize firepower so they were at a distinct disadvantage.

No resistance was raised against them as they moved, the suprise attack and blowing the interior to vaccum had cut resistsance dramatically. Speed, force and enviroment were always manipulated to the fullest in a Spacetrooper assault.

The spacetroopers moved as quickly as possible and reached their objective. The transit hub was ungarded, several corpses lay on the deck, dead from sudden decompression. The Spacetroopers spread out into the open area secured the entry and exit points.

"This is Sgt 24231, objective has been taken."

"Affirmative, Armored Marines en-route to continue advance."

The Stormtrooper Sgt turned back and regarded his defensive position. Already troopers were lifting and moving crates, benches, even bodies into position to erect barricades for defenseive positions. It was laborious work but in spacetrooper armor it took a few moments before the large armored soldiers were standing behind obsticales to any advance.

The Sgt turned towards the gravity lift and began to examine the lift when the first assault began. A mixture of Jackals, Grunts and Elites in spacesuits had launched an ad-hoc assault in an attempt to retake their lost transit hub. Blue and green plasma fire mixed with blaster cannon fire from the Spacetrooper armor.

Jackal shields and Elite shields might have done some good against projectile weapons, but against blasters, grenades and even mini-proton torpedoes they were next to useless. It only took the firepower of two armored Spacetroopers to take down a counterattack of any size so long as their ammo held.

Crimson blaster fire and a few blue-white proton torpedoes ripped into the motley collection of defenders and sent them into full retreat in a matter of moments beneath the massive barrage of fire.

As the futile assault peetered off the Armored marines moved forward.

Imperial Armored Marines were a cross between Stormtroopers and regular Imperial Army forces THe origional idea was for the navy to have it's own landing forces so that they wren't so reliant on the army to take over worlds and make planet-fall. But under 'encouragement' from a large number of Imperial Army generals, the Armored marines were redefined into strict boarding and security forces.

And they did their job extreemely well. Equpped with very specialized weapons and gear for zero-G combat they were nearly as dangerous as SpaceTroopers. But there were a whole lot more of them than Space Troopers.

The Space Troopers made way for the Armored marines as they advanced deeper into the Covenant Space station, their numbers and training capable of overwhelming their enemies easily.

Airlock AL35323, Mision Start +00:05

In contrast to the heavy armor and weapons of the Imperial Space Troopers, Tac-Team 2 of the X-Com XenoSkinners was making a silent entry into one of the primary power sections of the space station. Their own Disruptor armor had been one of the building blocks for the Spartan Next Gen armor. And even though the Spartans had gotten Technology from across the Coalition for their gear, X-Com Tac-Teams were still a cut above anything in the SC with training and technology.

Their integral cloaking and shielding systems kept the troopers hidden and protected from any threat while they hung in space and carefully hacked into the Covenant Control systems. Internal atmosphere and rebreathers meant that they had nothing to worry about in the vaccum.

The hybrid trooper Fillinta worked the control pannel and opened the sealed airlock. She signaled to the rest of the six-trooper team and they entered the station without resistance. She had rigged the doors so they registered closed when they were opened. A simple trick, but good enough to keep them from running into any problems.

The Tac-Team was trained for urban and starship combat and didn't hesitate to move into the cramped confines of the Covenant space station.

The passage beyond the airlock hadn't been blown to vaccum like the entry points used by the Imperial SpaceTroopers and armored marines. X-Com forces preferred to use stealth and evasion for as long as possible. Then unleash as much firepower as possible against their target.

Sergeant Illyan moved at the head of the unit, his disruptor rifle raised in low combat ready. The passage beyond the team was dark and shaddowed, but with the light enhancing software that the disruptor armor had, it appeared as bright as day.

No Covenant troops were nearby and they had a straight shot to the lower reactor control nexus. If they placed the mini-nuke there, they'd destabilize the entire station. Other teams and units were headed to similar locations, on their own they could each destroy the station. But there was no room for error in this mission, they had to suceed.

Sergeant Illyan moved around a corner and suddenly felt a searing pain jam through him. All at once, alarms activated in his suit helmet screaming that his suit integrity had been comprised. He felt his boots peel off from the deck and his entire body lifted off of the alien alloy. His vision went dark and faded away, he could see nothing other than the armored face of a Covenant Brute in front of him.

The horde of Brutes charged forward and out of their locked still positions around the corner. They hadn't intended to be invisible to the X-Com soldiers, but if they didn't move, the X-Com motion trackers couldn't work.

With a massive battle cry, the Brutes slammed into the X-Com squad. Purple disruptor rifles oppened fire and stitched the hallway with lethal energy. In the brilliant flashes and patterns of light, the Brutes dropped and fell, but kept comming through the tide of fire. Brutes grabbed, curshed, hacked and slashed through the X-Com squad, but not without a signifigant cost. For six X-Com troopers, nearly thirty Brutes had been cut to pieces.

It was one of many ambushes that had been laid across the station.

Covenant Command Station _Eternal Victory_, Mission Start +01:00

Elite Commander Grill'Olitiatnae looked out of the viewports as the Coalition fleet spread out around the seemingly defenseless battle station. His face bore a look of smug contentment. The intelligence had been perfect, the Coalition had come...into the trap.

"Order all starships to launch the attack. And begin firing on the Coalition ships. Wipe this vermin from existence." The Commander ordered. Around the command bridge, his officers nodded and began to issue orders.

"And push the interlopers from my station. I tire of ambushes and ruses." He added.

Power Regulation Nexus, Mission Start +01:01

Imeprial Armored Marine Galian Tress stood in the Covenant control room and looked around as his troopers placed explosives on the equipment. He nodded inwardly, it had been an easy task to take the control room...almost too easy...

"We've got incomming hostiles!" One of the troopers shouted over the comm. Tress spun and headed towards the barricade they'd thrown up in the hallway. Even with his training in zero-G operations, he moved slugishly. He rounded the hatch and fell in with the other troopers guarding the passage to the unsecured station.

Commando Elites were swarming down the hall with thuster packs and armored spacesuits. They weilded a mixture of plasma rifles and carbines, firing wildy as they moved.

"Light them up!" Tress ordered. The squad at the barricade opened fire with blaster rifles, flechette rifles, blaster pistols and light repeaters, tearing into the Elites. Fighting in an enviroment with no air to transmit sounds was always surreal. From the amount of energy and projectiles being thrown around in the crowded hall, the echo should have been deafaning, but instead all Tress could hear was his own breathing.

Covenant Elites dropped and fell limp in the passage as they were struck by energy and projectiles, they were either shoved to the sides, or used as shields by their friends.

"They're going to reach the barricade." Tress said calmly as he drew a bead on an Elite and fired a trio of bolts at him. The first two took down it's shield and the third shattered it's face plate, strangling it as it's air vented.

In a heartbeat the Elites were to, and past the barricade, writing with the Armored marines as they fought. The Elites continued to fight with Carbines, and shorter Plasma rifles, but even the small plasma rifles were unweildly in the close confines. The marines abandoned their rifles, releasing them and letting them get wound back by their tethers and be secured in place automatically. Instead they drew vibro-blades and blaster pistols, much more dangerous tools in a brawl like this.

An Elite flew through the air towards Tress. He ducked and rolled in space, dodging a barrage of plasma. The Elite glided past him in freefall, Tress brought his vibroblade around and sliced throught the Covenant warrior's oxygen tube. It vented and sent him spinning around. The alien scrambled uselessly as he spun, his mind trying to work on how to right himself. As he spun around, Tress rammed his heavy blaster pistol into the alien's face plate and fired, the Elite abruptly stopped struggling.

All around him, marines and elites dueled in one on one combat. But for every elite that died, more took their places. Slowly, the Marines were being pushed back.

"Move ba-" Tress said, but was cut off as small red droplets hovered up the inside of his faceplate. He felt pain lance through his neck and throat. His eyes threatened to roll back into his head, but he looked down and saw the two and a half foot plama blade an elite weilded jamming out in front of him. With a twist, the last thing that Tress saw was his own body tumbling away from him.

Iriquois Class Battleship _HASS Horus _Mission Start +01:05

"Admiral, we're reciving reports from the station that all forces are being overrun." One of the comms officers said.

"What?" von Burnlow said looking at the officer.

"We're getting reports that the Covenant have launched an all points counterattack." The officer said.

Von Burnlow blinked and looked back out at the station.

"Orders, sir?"

"Sir! New incomming contacts!"

"What? How many?" Von Burnlow asked.

"Uh...unknown, computer is still processing..."

"From where?" Burnlow asked more insistently.

"Computer is working..." The officer said, fear edging into his voice.

"Damn it, give me an answer!"

"Allah save me..." The officer said, his voice low and soft.

"Give me an answer now or I'll have your commission!" Burnlow snapped.

"Five thousand new contacts and rising sir...from all sides..."

"I'm detecting a gavity well generator activating...the Covenant station's an Interdictor!"

"Sir, all forces on the station are retreating...they want orders sir..."

"I'm detecting fighter wings inbound!

"Covenant station is powering weapons systems sir!"

Burnlow stood and walked up to the main viewport. He looked around and felt stark terror fill him. Thousands of Slipspace ruptures were forming in space, taking over from the stars themselves in their sheer numbers.

Burnlow reached down to his belt and drew the fine-crafted revolver he carried that was more ornamental than an actual sidearm. He placed the gold plated barrel to his forehead and pulled the trigger.

New Republic Assault Carrier _Righteous_, Mission Start +01:06

Commodore Jan Xavier looked out at the space arround her ship. It was alight with Covenant ships comming out of slipspace.

"Aww sith..." She swore looking at the new wealth of enemy ships.

"Ma'am, we're reciving a message from the _Horus_. Admiral Burnlow is dead. He shot himself."

"No loss there." Xavier snapped.

"Ma'am, you're in command." The comm tech said. Xavier looked out the viewport and back at the comm tech.

"Frell of a time for that..." She said. She removed her service cap and ran a hand through her short cropped red hair. She dropped the cap to the deck and returned to her command chair.

"Open a comm to all ships."

"Open ma'am..."

"Attention, this is Commodore Xavier of the _Righteous_. As you may have heard, Admiral Burnlow has committed suicide..."

New Republic Assault Carrier _Glorious_

"...and I have been placed in command of the fleet. I know that it's a frell of a time..." Xavier's voice souded through the passages of the ship and cockpits of the fighter pilots as they waited for launch orders. They'd all seen combat against the Yuuhzan Vong, and a very small minority had fought the Empire, they knew battle and were ready for it.

Imperial Mk. I Star Destroyer _Regal_

"...to switch commands, but it's unavoidable because that coward decided to die before fighting it out..."

Imperial Mk. I Star Destroyer _Fathful_

"...as you can all see, we're outnumbered, out gunned..."

Imperial Mk. I Star Destroyer _Harding_

"...and since that station has a grav field generator, sorely out of luck if we wanted to run..."

Imperial Mk. IV Star Destoyer _Viper_

"...so that means we have two options. Surrender or defeat..."

The imperial soldiers and sailors manned their posts and looked around nervously. Some of them were new crew, but all of them had seen combat and were ready for a fight. But only a few were ready for death in battle, most of them were still kids that thought they would live forever.

Human Alliance Cruiser _Overlord_

"...I think that even in this situation, surrender could be considered a valid option..."

Human Alliance Cruiser _Barbarossa_

"...I don't think that any disgrace would exist in giving up now and surrendering to the Covenant..."

Human Alliance Cruiser _Watch the Rhine_

"...or, we could fight to our deaths. Our certain deaths..."

Human Alliance Iriquois class Battleship _Horus_

"...because that's what it is right now, certain death. Unfortunately..."

Imperial Viber class Assault Cruiser A23-32

"...We'll all die if we chose that option..."

Imperial Viber class Assault Cruiser B23-32

"...because then the Covenant will take no prisoners at all..."

X-Com Patton Class Cruiser _Ryder_

"...even if we do get captured we will not be shown mercy..."

X-Com Patton Class Cruiser _Johnson_

"...but also, if we surrender..."

New Republic Assault Carrier _Righteous_

"...we won't be shown any mercy." Xavier said darkly. "I won't force any soldier in this fleet to battle to the death. I can't ask that of you, but all I ask is that you remember what happens if we surrender."

Xavier fell silent and waited for the responses.

"This is _Glorious, _we're with you Commodore."

"_Ryder _and_ Johnson _will follow you Commodore."

"_Regal_ is with you."

"_Viper _will never surrender Commodore."

"_Watch the Rhine_ will go down fighting.

"A23-32, won't give up without a fight.

"_Barbarossa_ isn't going to give up."

"There aren't any cowards on _Overlord_."

"The _Horus _isn't running from this."

"The _Faithful _won't dishonor it's name."

"This is _Harding_, if not for you, then for the Emperor!"

"B23-32 will give it what we can."

Xavier looked around at the motely fleet. They weren't much but they were going to give the Covenant hell.

Covenant Command Station _Eternal Victory_, Mission Start +01:30

"Hmmm, they still fight..." Elite Commander Grill'Olitiatnae said with some supprise. Even since they were extremly outnumbered and outclassed they fought on with daring. Of course, only three ships were left out of their origional force. One of the 'New Republic', starships, an 'Imperial' ship that was on the verge of breaking up, and the Human Alliance battleship that was about to be...

...no, had just been vaporized by plasma fire.

"Hail that New Republic ship. Offer them surrender." The Elite commander said.

"Sir?" His second questioned.

"You question my orders?"

"No, sir."

Within a few moments the channel was opened and the haggared face of what the commander understood to be a female human appeared. Her face was streaked with soot and she was bleeding from a slice on her head. Behind her, several consoles were burning and bodies could be seen.

"I offer you surrender." The Elite said. The female paused for a moment.

"I'm very sorry we can't."

"Oh?"

"Yes, I regret to tell you that we simply haven't got the facilites to take you all prisoner."

"What?" The Elite said in shock.

"Yes, we'll just have to fight on since I simply don't have the resources to take you prisoner." The female said and cut the comm.

"I want that ship captured. I want to kill that female myself."

"Yes, sir."

New Republic Assault Carrier _Righteous, _Mission Start +02:00

Commodore Xavier stood behind what remained of the helm and worked to point the nose of the Assault Carrier at the space station. She'd felt the shudder of Covenant boarding craft slam into the hull, they were on board.

Behind her, she heard the sounds of something large slamming into the blast doors to the bridge.

Oooo, she must have really pissed them off.

Her fingers danced along the controls and entered in a series of commands. As she finished, she drew her blaster and fragged the console.

Far behind her, she heard the sounds of the main engines activate. But even closer the sounds of the battering got much louder as one of the doors jumped off it's track and in towards her. She turned back towards the door and raised her sidearm.

Something massive slammed into the door and it fell inward with an immense clang. Covenant soldiers streamed forward through the demolished bridge. With a calm hand she fired her pistol with the prescion of an olympic marksman. Covenant troopers fell, but they didn't try to shoot back, they wanted her alive.

"Tough sith!" She screamed as the prow of the assault carrier drove itself into the hull of the spacestation in a final kamikazee attack. As the durasteel slammed into the Covenant alloy, a mixture of everything to nukes, to Thorium charges, to improvised proton torpedo bombs detonated, ripping through the station.

As these smaller explosions rocked the station, the much larger detonation of the main reactor went off, wiping out the station entierly.

But for all their heroic actions, the mission failed.

The Covenant were already prepared...

Now the attack was beginning.

One by one the ships turned and jumped into Slipspace, away from the ruins of the station and into Coalition space, unguarded worlds and resouces lay there. And the path to victory would lead through those unguarded worlds. Thousands of them ripe for conquest, and with their conquest, the fall of the Coalition.


	10. Chapter 8: Desperate Measures

Author's note; This chapter will be a little disturbing. I would like to make this warning up front even though I don't know if anyone listens when I put them up or not. But this chapter is going to be very dark and very geared towards making you hate the Covenant, and question how good the Sentient Coalition really is. That's the point, but I'm making this warning before the chapter starts. I actually felt ill writing part of this, but I felt that it needed to be written.

Alright?

On with the chapter.

Chapter 8: Desperate Measures...

Roman Colony World, "Pompei's Foundry",  
Industrial Refinery Planet,  
May 13th, 2552, 1423 Hours UST,  
Under Covenant siege for the past 15 Days

Unit Leader Maricus Tranteis crouched behind the shattered concrete wall of what had been a modest sized refinery that had worked with smelting Coronoan ore into extremely useful Cronidinte. But now, after having been a strong point for the 3,408th Roman Legion. Innumerable strafing runs by Covenant Banshees and Goa'uld Death Gliders had managed to destroy any useful equipment in the factory. The ruined foundry still had it's uses. The towering monolith of ruined concrete, steel and equipment had commanding fields of fire and was perfectly situated to hold up the Covenant ground assault.  
The Foundry facility was situated as a peninsula in the Roman line. It was jutting out on a small hill and it was prime real estate. But with this position, it was vulnerable to assault from nearly all angles and supplies only came in from one direction. That made this fortress a fragile position if the Covenant were to actually start thinking. If they planned to attack from any direction but the front, their might be a problem for the defenders.  
They'd been dug in and on the defensive since the Covenant Hegemony had landed just over two weeks prior. It had been a bloody two weeks with nearly four chorts, a force of 400 men, being slaughtered in an attempt to hold onto the factory. But they'd managed to hold in the face of an overwhelming number of assaults.  
Maricus Tranteis looked over the ruined wall and glanced around at the terrain. The surrounding foundry complex had been flatened by artillery fire and airstrikes, but the rubble was still more than ample enough to hide anything...including enemy armor.  
Maricus brought his head back under cover just as the energy round from a Covenant Beam rifle smashed into the concrete next to his head. The veteran Legionare belly crawled away from the section of wall he was hiding behind, his armor scraping on the uneven terrain as he tried to get away from where the sniper had seen him. As he crawled, he heard the single sharp rapport of a Roman sniper rifle made itself clearly known on the battlefield. Even over the din of the battle that was raging across the planet, he heard the wabling cries of a Covenant Jackal in it's death throws.  
He smiled grimly, the Covenant might not have snipers worth their salt, but a Roman could do far better than that. Maricus crawled for about 50 feet behind the stone wall before he squeezed through a small hole in a rubble heap and dropped into a ruined stairwell. He nodded to the pair of legionaries crouched with their Julius rifles leveled at him, at this range the 8-round clip of .30 cal rounds each rifle had could cut a man in half. They nodded and crawled up and out of the opening he'd just come through and into the battle that continued to rage.  
The ruined stairwell led down into the multidue of lower chambers and passages beneath the foudry. Now they were packed with supplies and equipment for the defenders. As Maricus walked through the chambers, the concrete ceiling seemed to shake with the sounds of explosions just overhead. The Covenant would be making another press foreward soon.  
He quickened his pace and arrived at the ad hoc command center for the foundry. He walked in and looked aroudn the cramped room. It's main fixture was an ammo crate with a battered map spread out on it. A few points were marked on it with chunks of rubble and other materials. Hunched over it was the Legion Commander, Spentirus Secandous. His own armor was just as beaten and ragged as Maricus's, the black armored breastplate and pads scraped and scarred from combat, and his terrocata and black tiger stripped fatigues were covered with dirt and grime from the two weeks of field duty. The Legion Commander nodded and glanced back at the map.  
"We're supposed to be getting Coalition reinforcements within two weeks." Secandous said. He looked at the radio in the corner of the cramped command center and adjusted the dials on it.  
"Supposed to be? It couldn't be too much to ask for a more definte statement from them could it?" Maricus asked with a growl in his voice.  
"No." Secandous replied lifting the headset and listening intently.  
"We send them our resources, soldiers, and equipment to aid in the war, and when our colonies get invaded all they can say is they're sending reinforcements? Typical arrogant Coalition." Maricus growled.  
"Meanwhile, we do what we can. How many men are left to hold the Foundry?" Secandous asked.  
"I've got four hundred and thirty two men ready and able. Walking wounded brings that number up to six hundred and two. Beyond that, they can't hold a weapon or move." Maricus said.  
"You've held out well for two weeks, we should be getting reinforced in two days." Secandous said.  
"With what?"  
"9523rd Legion. They'll be comming in to strengthen the line in the city."  
"I hope they hurry." Maricus said, saluted, and headed back up towards the surface, taking a different route this time. He detoured and crawled into a vent shaft in the wall. It was large enough for him to crawl through easily. He made his way through the vent system and emerged in a low culvert that had been dug by a crashing Death Glider. The gouge in the concrete had formed a low trench barely three feet deep. Maricus looked back and noted the light machinegun that had been set up in a small bunker that had been built beneath the wing of the fallen death glider. The gunner had a bandaged stump of a left arm, probably an amputation from a staff weapon blast. But he sat there with a grim look on his face and teeth gritted against the pain, manning the machinegun.  
"Viva Roma." Maricus said loud enough for the legionare to hear him. He looked over and nodded, teeth clenched tighter at the motion. Maricus crawled down the low gouge of terrain and towards one of the forward strongpoints that had been set up.  
When the death-glider had come down it had clipped a support column and brought down a section of wall. It had collapsed into a mound of concrete and steel. The defenders had dug it out and made a formidable fighting position out of it. Maricus crawled up to the position, and dropped into a dug out trench that ran along behind it. Maricus made his way up into the makeshift bunker and leaned against the rubble parapet.  
He shared the position with five other soldiers and a heavy machinegun. The little bunker had a good field of fire along what was the most likely route of entry into the shattered foundry. The thick concrete wall had been ripped apart by the deathglider before it had crashed, and had been widened by a barrage of plasma fire from several Wraith tanks. It had been used before by the Covenant in an attempt to take the foundry. Bodies littered the large gash in the wall, a mixture of 'normal' Covenant races and what looked to be humans.  
It didn't matter who they were though, since they had been doing their damndest to overrun the foundry, and that couldn't be allowed to happen.  
Maricus glanced over the top of the rubble pile bunker and looked at the gash. The haze of the battlefield beyond the foundry walls was thicky. Smoke and dust filled the air, but far in the distance, blue and green flashes were visible in the haze. The Covenant might not have been pushing here, but they were always pushing against Roman lines.  
"Are we going to get reinforced sir?"  
"Yeah, 9523rd legion is comming up to bolster the defenses. We've got two days to ho-" Maricus said, before he was cut off by a howling cries from all over the perimiter.  
"Incoming!" Echoed from all sides as blue plasma shells from Covenant Wraith tanks arched through the air towards the foundry. Along with this artillery barrage, wings of banshees came in low and fast across the ruined urban landscape, covering the foundry in plasma and fuel rod fire.  
"Keep down and watch your fields of fire!" Maricus shouted, leaping from the bunker and runing down the small trench line. He need to see where the assault was comming from. But before he could, all around the foundry the clatter of automatic weapons and greneades rose up. It sounded as though every flank of the foundry was being pushed at once. The Covenant had finally decided to start thinking.  
Maricus turned and returned to the bunker watching the gash in the wall. The Covenant might be hitting every side at once, but that was the easiest way into the Foundry's interior. He crawled back along the trench and into the rubble bunker just as the first wave of Covenant troops ran through the foundry wall. The crack Roman legionaries raised their rifles and started to blaze away at the approaching wall of Covenant troops. They fired and reloaded without pause, their rounds cutting down the armored humanoids as they charged with singleminded determination into the hole in the wall.

The almighty roar of the heavy machinegun drowned out the smaller cracks of rifle fire as it let a torrent of .50 caliber rounds into the encroaching enemy, but it did little to slow their advance. Enemy troops were knocked down like stalks of wheat before a scythe as they were hit by the big .50 caliber machinegun rounds, but they pressed forward. Their own carbines lashed out with a large volume of fire that an 8 round roman rifle couldn't match.

"Grenades and withdrawl!" Maricus hollered. As one, the firing halted and the legionaries hurled their grenades. Two of them slung their rifles and grabbed the heavy machinegun, the rest of the squad fired continuously as they ran from the small redoubt.

The unit fell back as blue and green enemy fire sitched through the air over their helmets.

They ran over the low culvert that the Death Glider had dug and jumped into a series of shell craters that had been dug by enemy plasma artillery. The two legionaries set the .50 cal back up and started firing again it's loud thrum filling the air once more. Maricus puleld the small radio he had and tuned into the artillery channel. It was overwhelmed with frantic calls for support...the Covenant were pushing all over the Roman lines.

Maricus switched frequencies and hopped into the channel for a battery of 105mm guns that had been tasked specificly for the refinery defense.

"Fire mission at grid..." Maricus looked up over the edge of the crater and out at the encroaching horde of Covenant, "...just hammer available targets at coordinate zebra!" Maricus hollered and dropped the radio. He brought his Julius rifle to his shoulder and started firing. As the Covenant soldiers pressed on into the culvert, the wounded legionaire opened fire with his lighter, .30 caliber machinegun. At close range it was very effective, it looked like a hand was sweeping along the trench knocking down the enemy as it went.

But it just wasn't enough, the Covenant just kept comming, and in a few moments it would be hand to hand...

Every legionaire in the shell hole knew it and they paused for a split second to affix their bayonets. The thick foot long blades with serrated edges were very effective in close combat. The squad resumed firing, desperately trying to thin the ranks of the enemy but it was no use, for every enemy soldier that was killed, it seemed as though two more charged forward.

The light .30 cal fire fell silent and only the heavy thrum of the .50 cal continued on amidst the clatter of .30-06 rounds. With a final roar the wave of Covenant troops stormed up into the shell holes and into the roman legionaires.

It became a bloody melee of spearing and jabbing, bayonet fighting between the romans and the Covenant conscripts with their plasma bayonets. The pair of legionaires kept firing their .50 cal, the rest of the squad fighting to keep them from getting outflanked and killed. But the rest of the squad was getting outflanked themselves. The covenant soldiers were washing over them as though they were a rock in a river, they only paused because they were in the way of the advance.

The screaching of incomming human artillery fire drowned out the sound of combat, then deafened it with the ensuing explosions from the HE rounds. They dropped right on top of the massive wave of Covenant soldiers and blew gaping holes through their line. As one, the conscripts seem to waver in the face of this barrage.

"Withdrawl! Go to ground!" Maricus shouted, the troopers used the small waver in the assault to scatter for the small tunnels and fishers that led to the tunnels and passages below the foundry. Maricus dove across some rubble, scraping his armor badly, but making it through a small hole and into the protective tunnels beneath the foundry.

Maricus grabbed his rifle and started to go as deep into the network as he could.

It would not be long before the major bombardment hit, and flatenned anything on the surface.

Russian colony 'Victrof II',

Agricultural world,

May 14th, 2552, 1500 Hours UST,

Under Covenant Assault for 4 days,

"Covering fire!" Chester Jamenson screamed over the din of gauss and plasma fire. His M21 kicked against his shoulder and sent a stream of explosive needles towards the advancing Covenant forces. He vaguely wondered how he had gone from being a member of the CSA special forces stationed in Alabama, to being a member of one of the few Sentient Coalition Infantry divisions stationed on an alien world.

Around him the rest of the platoon oppened fire with the hellish volume of death that the platoon was capable of lashing out with. Even spread out as they were, they could deliver a potent counter to the wall of Covenant troops and heavy armor that was pushing towards them.

The standard issue infantry weapon of the Sentient Coalition had become the semi-automatic M21 Gauss rifle. With a rate of fire at 100 rounds per second and advanced holo-sights, AI aiming assisstance, and recoil inerters, it was the most technologically advanced and intelligent infantry weapon in the universe that was in full scale production. The standard squad support weapon was the tri-barreled M40 GPGMC/L, or General Purpose Gauss Machine Cannon/Light. With a cyclic rate of nearly 1,000 rounds per second it had been 'downgraded' due to the excessive rate of ammunition that could be burned through. A soldier could burn through his combat load of ammunition in ten seconds of full auto fire.

The heavy hitters of the platoon were the M90 GPGC, General Purpose Gauss Cannon, these eight barreled monstrosities were outfitted with anti-grav units to handle the weight of them, and even then they still were mounted on heavy power armor so the soldier could manage the akward nature of the weapon. The weapon had a firing rate of almost 10,000 rounds a second flat out, but unlike the M40 the M90 was equipped with something 'special'. The M90 had it's own portable replicator unit. The heavy power armor was needed to haul the set up, but the field replicator unit the weapon was attached to meant that the M90 would never run out of ammo so long as it's Elerium/Naquida hybrid power generator was fueled

Spread out through the platoon were an assortment of flamers, grenade launchers and flechette rifles that made up the vast amount of firepower that the unit could dish out. It wasn't good to be on the recieving end of such a massive volume of firepower.

Each squad also had an attached SMCU/FS-10, Sentient Machine Combat Unit -Fire Support, the humanoid bipeadal form was seven feet tall and was the heavy weapons platform of the Squad. It was armed with a pair of electromagnetic grenade launchers on it's back with a ten round selectable magazine. Each arm mounted a M90, with acompanying ammo replicators. Heavy duty Adumantium -Trinium armor and shielding units made them hard to scratch let alone destroy. A 'learning' AI unit was in charge of the unit, one of the most sophisticated combat computer algorithms ever made by the Sentient Machine Empire.

Corporal Jamenson knelt in the low irrigation ditch and fired for all he was worth. The field of grayish wheat that they were firing across had been mowed down from the sheer volume of fire that was being put out. But even in the face of this wave of fire, the Covenant still stormed across the field. They hadn't had any available use of artillery or air support so they were going back on what they had an abundance of, infantry.

Jameson couldn't help but think that he'd killed more Covenant trying to charge across the field. There had been so many that all he could do was aim, fire, aim, fire, over and over again.

"Second squad, Jamenson...come in..." The corporal's helmet comm snarled at him. Nestled within the protective cocoon of the Jager-Panzer armor he wore, the comm came in clear and crisp. The lightweight armor had been designed in a joint venture by X-Com and the Rhienland military it was filled with all the bells and whistles that an infantry soldier could want, protection, intell, and comfort in a combat zone. Not nearly the same caliber as MLJINOR Next-Gen armor, it was still pretty nice.

"Here, sir." Jamenson responded effortlessly as he kept firing.

"This is Lt. Sung, we're getting pulled out for evac. We're being enveloped and have to go. Airsupport in ten sec's and counting." Jamenson heard in a slightly acented voice.

"Yessir." Jamenson said as he aimed the grenade launcher slung beneath his M21 and fired. The plasma grenade arched high over the encroaching Covenant soldiers and discharged, raining fire down on them. Several kept walking, covered in fire, before falling. Jamenson couldn't help but look at them in awe because of their calm and determined assault. He'd seen a line of soldiers walk into a wall of gauss rounds, being cut in half from the sheer volume of the fire before.

"Alright, prepare to withdrawl." Jamenson said over the squad comm, a few grumbles came back. They'd been fighting and falling back for the past four days now, not giving the Covenant a desicive engagement to wipe out the scattered Sentient Coalition forces on the planet. The native russian forces had been wiped out in a single battle, leaving the SC forces to try and bog down the Covenant as long as possible. They were doing their job but they were running hard and fast out of space to manuver away from the enemy. The Covenant kept landing more and more forces, they had enough warm bodies to overwhelm the far fewer in number SC troops.

Jamenson reloaded his M21 as the airsupport swept in over the wall of Covenant forces. AS-42's were an old vehicle that the Human Alliance had stored in abundance, the hybrid troop transport/gunship was reliable and hard to take down. A phased plasma cannon on the nose of the sleek black ship combined with a series of guided missile pods and dumb rocket pods made it a decent enough weapons platform.

Volleys of plasma and high explosives ripped huge gaps through the carpet of Covenant conscripts. It was bloody and brutal, but it was the only way to buy enough time for the troops to withdrawl. The trio of menacing ships swept up and down the line and droped as much ordinance as they could.

"Let's move it people, transports are here and let's get going." Lt. Sung said over the platoon channel.

As one the entire unit rose and fell back to the other AS-42's that were comming to a hover behind their position. The four anti-grav thruster pods around the fusulage made no sound, but ruffled the wheat and plants beneath them violently, the only signs they kicked out any thrust at all. Reflexively, the platoon ducked low as the door gunners opened fire with heavy fusion guns and screamers, giving the platoon enough time to get to the transports without being overrun.

Jamenson looked down at the rapidly dissapearing Covenant and looked at the mission status information inside his helmet, thye were going to the troop ship and then off to another world, this one was gone...

...like how many others?

I edited out this section because I felt that it would be too graphic and disturbing to put on even with the maximum rating on it. I do believe that it is an integral part of this chapter, but I could not add it, although I do not think that the chapter could be complete without having it included.

It is very disturbing and extremely upsetting to anyone that holds any kind of feelings about the Holocaust. This small part draws a stark picture of what the Covenant are and their goals, not just in my eyes, but hinted at in 'The Fall of Reach'.

I'll email this edited section to anyone that requests it when reviewing, but it must specifically be requested due to the images and ideas that I'm writing about.

Sentient Coalition High Command,

Filmar IV, Approx. 22 Miles beneath the planet's surface,

May 18th, 2554, 1300 Hours UST

Vallin Complin sat in his office silently, the only glow being cast coming from the holo map that dominated one wall of the spartan room. No pictures or artwork adorned the walls, there wasn't even any kind of incricate wall coverings, just plain His dark brown grell wood pipe sat in it's small holder on one side of his desk a small tendril of smoke coming from it, the only sign that it had been lit recently. The simple metal desk in front of him was covered in paper reports, datapads, neral chips, and clear plastic data sheets. Complin leaned back with his boots up on the desk corner and looked at the holomap.

It was a sight he did not wish to see. Even when he commanded troops during the Rebellion he had never thought he would see such an un-even array of forces. What had been a weakness and counterattack from an ambush had become a gash torn in the Coalition frontier five galaxies across. Covenant forces were pouring through the hole and engulfing world after world, tearing a conduit of destruction through what were some of the richest areas of the Coalition.

The map was real time, and he could see movement on it. The map represented nearly 6 _Trillion_ lightyears on one side and he could see the Covenant advance in motion across galaxies. It was miniscule and nearly inperceptable, but if you watched in the darkness you could see movement on it.

Complin sighed and sat up in his chair, leaning forward and reaching for one of the lower desk drawers. He deftly hit the release stud and the drawer slid open silently and stopped with the soft chink of glass against glass. He reached in and withdrew a small glass and a bottle whose only insignia was a single black and blue lightning bolt on the container of clear fluid.

The grizzled Cardian officer poured himself a measure of the fluid and turned his chair to the other set of drawers in his desk. As he sipped at the coarse harsh drink his hand dropped to the lowest file drawer and carefully tapped a few points on the drawer in the right series of locations with his fingers. The motions had to be carried out exactly in order with the correct finger tips, otherwise a small plasma charge would destroy the contents of the drawer, and anyone inside the room as well.

The drawer slid open and artificial smoke wafted out, testifying to the fact that the drawer had remained sealed and untouched. Complin reached down through the clouds and withdrew a single chip from the foggy depths of the drawer. It had been hand delivered by courier the day before, traveling nearly a billion lightyears under an armed guard of a Spartan team.

It was a simple data chit, nothing complicated, but it held information on one of the most lethal counterattacks that the Coalition had at it's command.

The data chit slid into the reader on his desk and a hologram came to life in the air. The holo was a jumble of incoherent shapes and forms as the decryption program activated and made sense of the heavily encoded files.

_To: General Vallin Himelstoos Complin, Commanding General of the Sentient Coalition ground forces._

_From: Doctor General Kaile Militofivic Quilerov, Chief Researcher at Wildfire Bio-Warfare Research Instalation_

_Re: Bio-Warfare capablilties of the Sentient Coalition_

Complin watched as the words disolved and were replaced by a human wearing the sterile white outfit that was synonimous with that of a researcher, complete with the thick glasses, receeding hairline and gray whispy hair. But beneath the white lab coat was the dark green uniform of the US Army, along with the stars of a General. The insignia on his shoulder patches was unusual for a military unit, but not unfamiliar to him.

"Greetings General. I hope this comunique finds you as well as can be expected. Although if reports are accurate the war itself has taken a nasty turn against our forces." Doctor General Quilerov said softly.

"In acordance with the requests from high command I have assembled the following information on our most potent and effective strains of Biological weapons that we have available. I've compiled this short report for you, although much of the data is far too sensitive to be transported. I can give you a basic run down of what...microbes we have available for use." The holo said. The image shifted over slightly, the Doctor was on one side, and a few images appeared on the other.

Complin's forte was ground combat and command, not microbiology. He had very little background on the topic, but he did recognize a virus when he saw one.

"This specimen is known as Ebola, there are three naturally occuring strains of the disease that have been coded Ebola, Ebola Zaire, and Ebola 3. Also, Ebola Motaba and Ebola Brahman are also natural strains from other worlds. The highest lethality of this disease is Ebola Motaba at 100 lethality. It's spread is by direct being to being contact. However, a mutation of this strain, known as Ebola Motaba/Cedar Creek is spread much like the flu and is just as deadly." The holo said as small tags appeared on the virus highlighting different features.

"Next we have Smallpox. Spread through the air and very virulent, but it's lethality is at a lower 45-60. None the less, effective against the very young and elderly with weakened immune systems."

"One of the more exotic microorganisms is this...the Andromeda Strain. It's a spaceborne organism that spreads rapidly through the air and kills via blood cloting in most subjects. It's lethality is at 100 barring...unusual cirumstances."

"Various other org-"

Complin cut the holo short as the door to his office opened. In stepped the form of Kurrs Anjek, his Grand Admiral's uniform looking immaculate in white. Complin did not rise, even though Anjek was the chairman of High Command, technically his boss. Complin remained where he was.

"I see that you recived the communication from Wildefire." Anjek said, his voice calm and even.

"Yes I have." Complin said, his voice also calm, but cold.

"I take it that you don't approve of it." Anjek said.

"No. I take it you requested the information?" Complin replied.

"Yes I did." Anjek said.

"Why?" Complin asked with a cold tone.

Anjek slowly walked up and sat down on one of the simple chairs in front of Complin's desk.

"We're loosing Vallin. If this Covenant invasion continues, we have maybe a month, probably less before they reach Republic space and overrun our shipyards, along with the Asguard colonies. Then they'll be within striking distance of the Human Alliance. And if they fall, our military can't hope to stand." Anjek said.

"What of the Federation? Or the SGC?" Complin asked, already knowing the answer.

"Their forces are few and weak, you know as well as I that the heavy hitters in this war are the Imperial and Republic fleet, along with the Human Alliance and the United Stellar States everyone else is secondary, or ground troops." Anjek said.

"So you want to resort to this?" Complin asked and turned the holo back on, Doctor General Quilerov continuing his descriptions, oblivious to the two members of High Command.

"It's an option."

"Like frell it is." Complin snarled.

"Oh? And what makes you say that?"

"We've both been through the Cardia academy. You and I both know the book on the use of Biolocgical and Chemical weapons. _ 'Use of said munitions is less than effective against shielded trained forces, optimal dispersal and effectiveness is best achieved against unprepared formations.'_. You, me, anyone that's gone through the academy has read that passage and knows exactly what it means...civilians." Complin said.

"I know. Just as the Covenant have eradicated countless others with plasma bombardment." Anjek said.

"This is different Kurrs, and you know it. They aren't all civilians they aren't all Covenant civilians, they're slaves and conquests. They don't want to be under the yoke of the Covenant any more than we would."

"Give me one race that the Covenant have conqured that are worth redemption. The Yevetha? The Yhuuzhan Vong? The Goa'uld? They're just as bad as the Covenant, if not worse. Even if they were freed, do you think that they would go about their existence peacefully? No, they'd eradicate us just the same as any other. Or use these same weapons against us."

"We're soldiers. Have you ever heard of the rules of war? Even we were taught that in the Imperial academy. We can't use these weapons in their best role, we can't use them at all." Complin said.

"It's an edge, we try to fight a stand up war against the Covenant and we're crushed, and then what? We'll be a footnote, that's it."

"What else are we going to use? Sun Crushers? Galaxy Guns? Nova Bomb torpedoes? What next? Will we stop at this abomination against all sentient beings or will we expand out into other realms of destruction? It will be worse than the Clone Wars, worse than the Rebellion, worse than the Vong invasion!" Complin said.

"We'll survive Complin, and at least we'll leave our ancestors to fight the next war, and the next, like the Complins and the Anjeks have always done Counsin. I'm giving you a direct order that we'll be using these weapons, we need to break the back of the Covenant invasion. We need time to make a counter attack and prepare for the next step."

"And what's the next step?"

"Victory or death."

Complin frowned as Anjek stood and walked out of the room. He lifted his glass and drained it before hitting the small comm unit on his desk.

"Yessir?" The comm chirped.

"I want on the next available stargate run to the Wildfire facility. As soon as possible." Complin snarled.

"Immedeately sir!"

Complin cut the comm and leaned back in his chair.

If he was to be the destroyer of the honor of the Coalition's military, he should at least know what he was using.

Earth 342323-000953

Wildfire Research Faciltiy, Nevada Desert,

May 18th, 2554, 1500 Hours, UST

Complin found his trip surreal and even slighty funny. In a trip from one galaxy to another, the longest part of the journey wasn't crossing the vast stellar distances, or the flight on an extreemely primitive aircraft...

No...it was the drive up to the facility in a four wheeled, internal combustion engine powered ground vehicle. Such savages...

Complin stared out through the dust caked window across the seemingly limitless desert that stretched as far as the eye could see. Of course, Wildfire was in an isolated location on this earth, origionally designed to research diseases and bacteria that were brought from a very primitive series of experiments into the possiblilty of life forms in the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere.

But now, the facility had been redesigned using technology from across the Coalition and it had been made into the most advanced research facility in Coalition space. Filled with the greatest minds available, it was the best that there was.

Although it was frell'in hard to get to.

"Almost there General." The driver of the groundcar said. He didn't have any insignia or identifying markings but he identified himself as a captain when he picked Complin up at the small asphalt landing strip. The car jostled over a pair of ruts in the road and complin's teeth cracked together. He was an infantry man, but he couldn't fathom what it would be like to wage a war with this type of primitive technology. Athough the outfit that he had been given was supposedly 'native' and inconspicuous...he had to wonder what 'tie-dye' was, or this strange fabric known as 'polyester'.

The car came around a low hill that had dominated the horizion for nearly an hour before hand, in the dwindling light, he could make out the ocasional form running through the dark brush and sand. He couldn't make out the shapes clearly, but he couldn't help but feel that if he left the groundcar, something...unfortunate would occur...

The car mwound around the hill and exposed what looked like a weather-beaten building surrounded by crops and farm equipment. It did not look like a top secret biological weapons research facility. More like a farm.

"It looks like a frell'in farmstead." Complin said.

"That's the general idea sir." The driver replied.

The ground car bumped along down the path and to the facility. Harsh lights cast errie shadows in the grwoing darkness as the car drove through a simple gate in the chainlink fence. Nothing seemed to be too heavily guarded at this facility.

The car rolled up to the base of the wodden farm house and Complin got out, more than happy to be out of the primitive device. He looked around, trying to catch the slightest sign that there were guards, or something there watching the facility, he couldn't detect any.

"This way sir." The captain said and gestured up the stairs. Complin nodded and walked up. The Captain reached the door and opened it, stepping through and into a small office.

The facade of a hidden facility evaporated in the face of a fully armed and armored Spartan team standing in the entrance office. Their SM-1's were raised and amied directly at Complins head. Even if they were Spartans, and more than capable of recognizing the Commanding General of the Sentient Coalition Army, they didn't go lax in their protocol.

"Name, rank and purpose of visit." One of the Spartans said, her words hard and rapid. If they were nervous, it wasn't visible.

"Vallin Himelstoos Complin, Sector General- CurrentlyCommanding Sentient Coalition Ground Forces. I'm here to examine the facilities current programs." Complin said clearly and calmly, knowing that if he so much as slurred a consonant he would cease to be in very short order.

"Confirmed sir." The female Spartan said. As one the four trooper team lowered their SM-1's and saluted in unison.

"I'm glad to hear it." Complin said and returned the salue.

"This way sir." The Captain said and led the way past the four monolithic forms of the Spartans. Complin nodded to them as he pasted. Like good Super-warriors they didn't move. The captain led the way down the hall and into a small closet filled with gardening tools. The captain stepped in, followed by Complin. The door closed and the room was enveloped in darkness.

With a click, Complin felt movement, and the floor began to descend. It was a short trip, but Complin had the sense that he was moving very fast. But as soon as the drop began, it ended, and Complin was looking at an empty room.

"Just step in sir, and they'll take it from here." The Captain said. Complin nodded and stepped into the room. Silently, the closet ascended and the room was once again empty. The only light cast into the room came from a central lamp, recessed into the ceiling. Complin looked around but couldn't see any type of amperature that eluded to a door or portal.

But even before Complin could make a full circut of the room he felt a slight tingling sensation running across his body for a split second before all the light in the room seemed to amplify rapidly, until his vision was completely white. The blazing white that filled his vision subsided quickly, and the blank room changed into a very elaborate and high tech transporter room.

Once again Complin was face to face with the barrels of weapons once more. No less than 20 M21 Gauss rifles were leveled at him. Complin felt the stares from the soldiers, even from behind their tinted faceplates and black combat armor.

"Step forward off the transporter pad." One of the soldiers said. Complin stepped forward, and just as smoothly, the soldiers moved and encircled him.

"Place your hands on the podium." Another ordered. Complin walked to a small waist high podium and placed both his hands on it, palms down and fingers spread out. With a small flash on the podium's glass top, the soldiers lowered their weapons and saluted, not as mechanically as the Spartans, but with military precision none the less.

"Welcome to Wildfire, General." One said and stepped forward, the chest plate of his armor had a Captain's bars painted onto it. His M21 was held across his chest by a tactical sling, but his hand did not leave the rear grip.

"I can't say it's good to be here Captain, I've come to examine the weapons under development at this facility." Complin said. The captain nodded.

"Follow me sir, I'll take you to the General's office." He said, and led the way out of the room. His boot steps were muffled by carpet as they stepped out of the transporter room, but before they did, Complin heard the foot falls of four soldiers, he was recieving a formidable escort through the facility, even if he was the highest ranking soldier in Coalition space.

The passages of the Wildfire facility resembled those of a Federation starship, beige and gray, no colors beyond those of the small light bars that ran down the walls at roughly chest height. Right now they were a dark blue, reflecting the night on the surface aparently. The passages had various signs that seemed either simple - such as 'Cafateria' or 'Trooper Barracks'- or unfamiliar -'Quantum resonance Imaging Chamber' and 'Genome Enzyme Synthesis Control'.

Complin was suprised that he saw so many people up and about despite the late hour. He passed various species of alien as he was escorted through the passages, Humans, Asguard, Psilon, and others he was completely unfamiliar with. While most of the aliens either wore unfamiliar clothing or none at all, the Humans all wore the steryotypical white lab coat with patches to show their perspective 'cultures'. Complin noted the Federation, Human Alliance, United Stellar States, New Republic, Empire, X-Com, SGC, Tollan, and Tok'ra as being the most prominent. Along with some more suprising insigna from everything from the Australian Empire, to the Peoples Republic of Brazil.

A few saluted as he passed, but most did not, Complin wasn't suprised. Most of the best and brightest researchers in the Coalition weren't in the employ of the Military, they were civilians that were 'forceably volunteered' in other words, drafted into service for the duration of the war.

The New Republic General was taken past a floor to ceiling section of wall, and paused.

"Main research floor sir." The Captain supplied. Complin looked out at the massive expanse. It was easily a half a mile long. Glowing energy fields and transperisteel labs filled the interior of the huge chamber. Dozens of sprawling labs filled the floor below him, hundreds of beings working diligently on refining and perfecting the various deadly microbes available to the Coalition.

"This is the general isolation area, it's more of the 'Pure Research' area, to keep the scientists happy. They're given free reign down there to research whatever they want to that's related to the biological and Genetics fields. Keeps them from getting restless." The Captain said. It was then that Complin noted the black armored forms that wandered through the huge cavern, both alone and in squads. And he noted the small remotes and droids that hovered high above, no doubt watching everything that went on with intrest.

"So this isn't the death factory?" Complin said with disdain.

"The Bioweapons research labs are deeper down and much more extensive." The Captain replied, Complin didn't see the scowl that his comment had caused, but he felt it.

Complin made one last glance over the chamber and nodded to the Captain, he resumed his position as guide. There were no other viewports looking out onto massive chambers filled with scientists, rather, there was the occasional view of endless expanses of desert, or exotic worlds.

"Helps keep things somewhat normal around here, if you're going to work underground without any kind of acess to the surface, it helps to think there is a view." The Captain explained. Complin nodded in response.

But Complin noticed something else about the facility, the guards along the hallways. They stood stiff and motionless with their hands on their weapons, but no doubt their eyes tracked him as he moved by.

Complin couldn't help but find this...unsettling. The Captain led them through another checkpoint, this one watched over by ten soldiers, two of which watched him through the gun sights of M90's, the rest behind small. But they moved through without even a cursory ID check.

"Nothing this far in Captain?" Complin said as they walked through the checkpoint.

"If you're this far in sir, then you're supposed to be here." The Captain said. Complin nodded. A few more turns in the dull passages and they were outside the hatch marked 'Doctor General Kaile Militofivic Quilerov'

Complin walked right up to the door and through it as it slid open. The interior of the office was much like the halls, beige carpets and gray walls. No windows or artwork on the walls, but they were instead covered with hard data printouts. Pieces of paper covered in incomprehensible data and diagrams that Complin couldn't even begin to understand. Stacks of paper and hard copy printouts sat in tidy little stacks on chairs, table tops, even the floor as covered. None of it was messy though, it was all extremely neat and ordered, it didn't give the impression of being a mess, just a vast quantity of information held in one place.

"General. I'm surpised that you've come to this facility." Quilerov said with some small hint of suprise. He sat behind his desk, also covered in papers, and obscured slightly by a three dimensional holo of what looked like a DNA strand.

"Don't be General. I'm here to examine your...projects." Complin said.

"You can go captain..." Doctor General Quilerov said to the black armored guard. He saluted and left with his men. "...and General, would you care for a tour of our facility?"

"While we walk General, I want to see the weapons. Now." Complin said, more an order than a gentel encouragement.

"Yes sir." Quilerov said. He motioned out into the hall and they began to walk.

"This entire facility was rebuilt and redesigned in a year after the founding of the Coalition. The origional base still exists, but mainly as a decoy in case of Covenant attack. It was five levels deep, and the containment and production facilites were woefully primitive. In this facility we've incorporated the most advanced equipment and technology in the Coalition. Everything was mined using Tok'ra crystals and created with Federation replicators, no massive amounts of material moved in or out. Much simpler and more secretive that way, with the added benifit of secrecy." Quilerov said stepping into a turbolift. Complin followed. The Doctor General hit the touch pannel and the lift began to descend.

"We're completely isolated from the outside world, not so much as a crack will penetrate from this facility to the surface, since we're nearly two miles buried in solid granite. Also, we've made key reinforcements around the facility, durasteel, neo-titanium, and other metals form a sealed box around the base. Nothing can escape. We used transporters to move anyone in or out of the base, it's much safer. We've got a completely self sufficient system available here, replicators provide all we need, aside from subjects and cultures, but other than that we're independent of the rest of the planet. If the Covenant Glass this place, we'll keep functioning without stoping."

"It's ten levels. The top seven are general equipment and laboratories, third from the bottom is the nano-weapons lab, and the bottom two are devoted to weapons researach. One is biological weapons, the other is Bio-weapons." Quilerov said.

"What's the difference?" Complin asked.

"Biological weapons are viruses, bacteria, other mono-celled or simple organisims that are capable of being made into weapons. Bio-weapons are complexe beings engineered to be weapons, either small like insects or bugs, or as large as you and I."

The turbolift halted and they stepped out onto the lowest level. Emblazoned on the wall opposite the turbolift was a massive biohazard symbol, with the words: Level 10, Bio-weapons development and Multiple testing level.

"This is where the demonstration chambers are." Quilerov said. Quilerov led the way down the corridors and through the maze like areas. But instead of the completely barren passages, they walked through a transperisteel encased catwalk, risen over a large lab floor. But it wasn't entirely a lab floor...

Some parts seemed to be more like a slaughterhouse, or some demonic operating theater. There were creatures being...worked upon...beneath him that made him question the existence of any kind of higher being that could allow such affronts to nature and god exist.

Creatures that ran the gamunt from humanoid with massive claws, to strange reptilian creatures, and even formless masses of flesh and bone. Blood seemed to coat the floor, and the blue isolation suits the doctors and technicians wore. Red, green, blue, orange, black, every imaginable color was smeared across the formerly sterile stainless-durasteel. Off hand, Complin counted that there were nearly fifty operating tables on the floor, each filled with a creature that Complin couldn't identify.

Complin also saw the guards.

Many more than the upper levels, and each wearing a full scale powered armor suit with the now standard dual M90 weapons load out. There was an immense amount of firepower available in that room. And along with them, Complin saw that there were turrets in the ceiling, and more guards walking on catwalks with M21's, and MS21's, the Sniper rifle variant. Suddenly all the security that he'd passed through on the way in made sense, it wasn't just to keep people out...

It was to keep them in incase the unforseen happened.

"My...god..." Complin said. His face had tuend white, his jaw set.

"The Bio-weapons production lab. Quite exsquisite aren't they?" A voice said. Complin looked around and saw a rather plain looking man walking up to him. The man wore a lab coat just like so many others, but without any kind of military insignia...the only identifier he had was a small circle, cut off into small slices of alternating red and white.

"Ah, General Complin, this is Dr. Birkin, one of the lead biological weapons researchers. One of his more interesting creations is in use down there, a virus in use to augment strength and deaden pain responses, what was it Dr?."

"My precious G Virus, much more dangerous than the T or T-Veronica strains..." Birkin said looking down into the chamber. His voice had trailed off, as though he felt his words wasted on speaking to the two Generals.

"Dr. Birkin is from the Umbrella Corporation, a rather...diverse pharmaceutical corporation."

"Yes...We've made great medical and...militant advaces in the name of science."

Complin looked up at the doctor and then back down into the chamber. He couldn't help but feel two conflicting emotions, disgust and resignation. Disgust that such a place existed, that such research was going on, disgust that it was being carried out by the Coalition...

But resignation, resignation to the fact that it was a nessicary evil, no matter how reprehensible it was...it had to be done.

"This way please general, I'd like to demonstrate our weapons to your first hand." Quilerov said, Complin followed, along with Birkin, who seemed to follow them with a slightly detached attitude. Complin didn't think much of it, he'd run into much less sociable researchers, but this attitude was nothing new to him. Those that made the weapons rarely seemed interested in the input from those that had to use the weapons.

A few more turns and they passed though another checkpoint, the troopers there armed with M21's and flamethrowers. Doctor General Quilerov and Complin nodded as they passed through, Birkin didn't even blink.

"The main production facilities for the weapons are based on each level, but we have the testing labs here so that we could isolate the area sufficiently. It would be rather unfortunate if something escaped." Quilerov said, and Complin wondered if he was talking about a microbe, a bio-weapon...or a researcher. They passed through with as much ease as the other checkpoints and were in another of the seemingly numerous transperisteel passages, this one however did not look out into a large chamber, rather it looked into smaller rooms and cells.

"Our first stop General is the most lethal bio-weapon we have that is naturally occuring. Ebola Motaba." Quilerov said and they paused in front of a smaller booth that held the remains of a pair of Covenant Elites. Complin looked at the interior of the chamber and at first wondered if a bomb had gone off inside each of them. Their blood covered the walls, floor and ceiling of the room as though it had been put their by a spray unit. Each of them was covered in leisions and welts that blood had poured out of. Blood looked like it had come out of every oriface and opening in the dead alien's bodies...

"Deadly." Complin said softly.

"Yes, 100 mortality rate among the infected. Airborne transmission among a mutation strain, and an incubation period of apporximately 1-2 days among most Covenant races. Given what we know about Covenant medical and biological technology, it is highly unlikely they could adequetly contain any kind of outbreak beyond draconian isolation measures." Quilerov said.

"I see. So what would be the most common methods used to counter an outbreak?" Complin said.

"Isolation by force. People don't want to stay around an outbreak of a deadly disease, even if they're already sick. Martial law and complete isolation are the only possible means to keep a population from spreading the disease." Quilerov said. Complin nodded, fully aware of the nesessity of such actions.

"This next weapon is one of Dr. Birkin's more...interesting creations. The T-Virus." Quilerov said and they stood before another chamber. This one had a single Yevetha in it, the alien was standing and shambling around the small chamber.

But one of it's arms was missing completely he merely had a ragged stump at the shoulder, and there were other places on it's body that looked as though they had rotted out and decayed. It's eyes were empty and expressionless, it's face was blank. The only noise it made was a dull rasping moan as it shambled around the chamber.

"It is unique in the fact that it reanimates dead tissue, an unforseen side effect from it's intended use, it was origionally a precursor to the G-Virus, designed for use in Bio-Weapons as a means to increase strenght, resilience and agression. But the base strain had unforseen reactions to living tissue. It burns out sections of the brain, destroying all higher logic functions, and it reduces the being to a mindless...zombie." Quilerov said.

"Primitive but effective none the less." Birkin said.

Complin looked at te two and only nodded. The deeper that he went into this hall of horrors the more unsettled he became. These weren't weapons that soldiers could fathom using...they were tools of planetary murder.

"Next we have the Andromeda Strain. Very quick killer in most cases, it clots the entire blood volume of the victim. Quick, effective, and airborne. It's a very tidy way to eliminate a large population, we've even modified it to become inert after initial dispersal, making it capable for troops to immedeately take the location." Quilerov said. The Jaffa in the next room was simply lying on the floor, nothing looked as though the warrioir was dead, he was lying there, motionless.

"Much cleaner a killer than any other microbe." Birkin added.

"Those are the primary microbes taht we've settled on, for lethality and ease of transmission." Quilerov said.

"I see." Complin replied, looking down the hall, there were many other test chambers...no doubt filled with other enemy soldiers that had met gruesome ends. It was no way for a soldier to die...for any soldier to die.

"We do have facilities to prod-" Quilerov said.

"You've been given approval for full scale production?" Complin asked.

"Yes, three months ago. We've produced nearly four thousand tons of liquid suspension Ebola, the Motaba strain with airborne transmission. Two thousand tons of liquid suspension T-Virus, and three thousand tons of powdered Andromeda. Also we're one thousand tons into primary production of the G-Virus in a liquid suspension. Five thousand tons of powedered Anthrax, one thousand five hundred tons of powdered Smallpox, a thousand tons of powdered Maurburg, and we just began production of five thousand Tyrant units and two thousand Nemesis units. We've also produced fifty thousand Hunter Beta units, and an additional seventy five thousand 'Licker' units. We've produced lesser amounts of other microbes, but these are all ready to be deployed on Human Alliance long range bombers, and drop tubes on Coalition starships. Also, Bio-Weapons production is about to be stepped up, but for the moment we're limited. The units we have produced are ready to be deployed in combat operations." Quilerov said.

"Antidotes? Countermeasures?"

"Pan-immunity innoculations that are standard for our ground forces will protect against all these microbes. Blood-Cops, and other nano-tech immunity boosters can handle an infection. However, in most of our cultures, such advancements are unknown, much less in common usage. We've synthesized vaccines for each of these and have been placing them in mass poduction on other worlds. In the past three weeks we've produced enough to give total protection to approximately seventy billion people."

"But the total population of the Coalition is estimated at nearly seven _hundred_ _trillion_ and growing with every people and galaxy we join with."

"Unfortunate General. Very unfortunate." Birkin said.

Complin drew a ragged breath and steeled himself.

"Prepare to begin moving stocks to forward marshaling points to be utilized in the defense of Coalition space." Complin said. With those words, he felt as though he had become a greater mass murder than Palpitine or Tarkin.

He probably had.

Sentient Coalition High Command,

Filmar IV, Approx. 22 Miles beneath the planet's surface,

May 18th, 2554, 2100 Hours UST

The trip back to Filmar IV had been as rapid as the trip to Wildfire. That was something that General Complin never got used to. The wonders of the Coalition and the Forerunner Alliance were never ceasing. A trip that would have taken millenia for a normal hyperdrive to complete took less than a minute when traveling by Stargate.

But right now, coming from that devils laboratory back to the table of the Joint Chiefs of the Coalition was a trip that seemed to have taken eons, the weight of what was about to be done terrified even a hardened veteran like Complin. He couldn't help but feel as though he had aged considerably on that journey.

They sat there again, something that the complete joint chiefs hadn't done for some time. They'd been torn apart and fragmented trying to defend against the Covenant advance. But right now they had been drawn together for what would be a defineing moment in Coalition military thinking.

For a few in the room, they felt it would be their first steps toward the Dark Side.

For others, sealing their fate in hell.

For one, it was a simple mathematical equation.

The mirrored grell-wood table was completely clear, it's shine reflecting the hologram that was hovering in the air above it.

Covenant forces ground forward with the speed and weight of an avilanche, nothing could slow it, and even on a hologram that represented such an epic area...you could see the movement. It was more pronounced now than it had been a few hours before. The fact that the advance had swallowed an entire galaxy in just over two weeks. The strategic situation was not looking good, wheither it had been planned or not, the main thrust of the Covenant was sending the entire Coaltion military for a loop. All across the front lines, the Covenant were advancing, taking planets and systems despite tenacious fighting.

Raiders were hitting deep behind the front lines and dirsupting any chance of either reinforcement or withdrawl. The front was turning into battles of annihilation, either by purpose or accident, the Covenant were eradicating the unified front line units that boasted the best technology in the Coalition. Resistance was beginning to collapse.

Grand Admiral Anjek stood and looked at the hologram. He raised his cane and jabed it at the center of the glowing image.

"Gentelbeings...As you know, we're losing." Anjek said. A few nods came from the table. "Right now, we have been given political authroization for the use of weapons of mass destruction."

"Weapons of mass murder Grand Admiral." General Vitrans said, his antenae twitched slightly.

"I agree, while those that fight against the Republic and the Coalition deserve to burn in the fires of hell for their sins, such indescriminate murder is an affront to God." General Calarathi said, his tail flicked around tensely, the anger in his voice clear.

"We cannot win with this course of action, we're being wiped out. We need to send the Covenant a message that we have weapons that are worse than theirs." Spartan -9421 said from within his MLJINOR NextGen armor.

"If we use these weapons we'll invite them to do the same." General Complin said.

"You know that we have absolutely no intelligence that suggest the Covenant have even the most rudementary ability to research biological agents. Let alone the ability to mass produce them and to disseminate them on a large scale." X-J2423-FP said.

"But we don't even know how large the Covenant's territory is." Vitrans countered.

"Not relevant." X-J2423-FP said dissmissively.

"We know full well that the Goa'uld have the ability to produce an extremely lethal host of biological and chemical agents, and have proven they have the force of will to use them." Vitrans said.

"All the more reason to use our own first, fast and in large amounts. The psychological edge involved in using these weapons first." Anjek said.

"If the Goa'uld have these weapons, why haven't they used them yet?" Complin asked.

"The Covenant have used their subject races as slaves, not as allies. They're cannon fodder, not valued allies and partners. They take their orders and that's it." Anjek said.

"But the fact remains that we haven't had provocation t-" Calarathi said. Anjek cut the large Trianii off, fast.

"We do have provocation, and the political desicion has been made to regard our use of these weapons as a valid first strike weapon. We have the authroity and we're make that desicion tonight." Anjek said quickly.

"That's easy for you to say human!" Calarathi snarled, literaly... "you weren't infected with Kyritos! You never saw the hospitals filled with the sick, waiting for bacta, waiting for help...while they died, horribly. These weapons are horrific devices and no one should ever use them. Ever." Calarathi said.

"The fact is, the Covenant have used their own versions of these weapons before, and they are more than willing to use their own versions again. But right now we are facing eradication, and we can't afford to ignore that fact, ever. Numerically, we are out classed, and we're running out of time. We need to use a weapon that we can garantee a notable response from the Covenant with. A weapon that we can use and make sure that they know we used it. That is the only way to slow their advance and bring them to the barganing table." X-J2423-FP said.

It was commonly accepted that the Coalition didn't have a chance at beating the Covenant if it took the high route, but the route to victory was not one that many in the Coalition wanted to tread because it was filled with acts that rivaled those of the Covenant.

The Coalition's only option was to do something so substatial that the only thing the Covenant could do was come to a peace accord. But defeating the Covenant was not an option, the Coalition did not posess the type of force to overwhelm the Covenant and take them down. Peace was the only option, peace through strength.

"I'm calling a vote on the table. Majority wins, and then we decide the next corse of action." Anjek said. The others looked at him, suprised. Anjek gave them no reply, instead he simply shook his head.

"I say no." Calarathi said firmly.  
"I agree, we can't use these weapons." Vitrans added.

"We have no other likely course of action, it is either use them, or lose the war." X-J2423-FP said.

"As much as I destest this concept, the cold hard facts are we cannot maintain a conventional war with the Covenant, we need to increase our force utilized, and this is the only valid option." Spartan -9421 said.

"I of course support the use of these weapons as the only valid option. I must make it clear, I hate the thought of wholesale slaughter, but this is our only choice." Anjek said.

All eyes at the table looked to Complin. With one vote he could tie the desicion, drag out the debate longer, and possibly take the Coalition away from this horrific corse of action. He sat silent for several long seconds before raising his head.

"We must...use these weapons." He said.

"What! You're a soldier of the Republic!" Calarathi shouted with a growl.

"You have managed to doom millions, if not billions of civilians to death!" Vitrans shouted.

"And how many of our civilians will die if we don't? How many soldiers will die if we don't? You seem to forget that simple fact, don't become so focused on the rights of the enemy and the rules of war to forget the rights of our own civilians, and the fact that the Covenant ignored the rules of war since the first minute of this conflict!" Complin said, his voice raising in tone until he was screaming at the others in the room.

"General, maintain some sense of composure..." X-J2423-FP said.

"No, when this moment is looked back on by future generations, when I am seen as a murderer for the desicion I just made, then let them also know, that if I had it in my power to spare every Covenant civilian the horrors of war...I would. If I could make this war leave their innocence alone, if I could pass them by, I would. But the Covenant have seen fit to make sure that our own civilians have not even been spared from death, let alone violation of their liberties. And for that, I cast this vote not out of vengance or spirit of malice...I do it to spare innocent men women and children somewhere from facing the horrors of war!" Complin shouted.

"I'm doing this to protect others, but I know damn well that this desicion will leave the blood of billions, if not trillions on my hands. And I accept that." Complin said finally.

The room was silent, the others merely stared down at the table top, lost in their own thoughts. Complin stood and walked out, past Anjek and into the halls.

"Complin." Anjek said.

Slowly, the Republic General paused and looked at the Grand Admiral.

"Were you following orders, or was that your own thoughts?" Anjek asked bluntly.

"With all due respect, sir, to hell with your orders." Complin snarled and kept walking.

Sentient Coalition Deep-Strike Bomber Detachment,

High Orbit over _Hirearch's Shining Prases_, Covenant Planet,

May 20th, 2554, 0900, 2554, UST

Approximate population; 23 Billion sentient beings.

"All crews report ready." Wing commander Eldrige Hatch asked across the comm. This close to a Covenant world, the crews were edgy, very edgy. If they were detected, they were dead. Covenant picket and patrol ships were coming close enough to touch, but all the bombers were completely concealed by their temporal cloaks. Nothing detected them, or their shielded micro-pulse transmissions.

"Bangman -1 all systems go, weapons green."

"Bangman -2, all go, all green."

"Banggirl -3, all G."

"Bangman -4, all go, all weapons green."

"Bangman -5, good and green.

"Banggirl -6, all systems go and green."

"Bangbeing -7, all G."

"Bangman lead, all are go." Hatch said finaly.

The detachment was sitting around the planet, spaced out perfectly and formed up for maximum dispersal of their ordinance. It had been harrowing, and sneaking this far into Covenant space was no small feat, especially considering the current state of the war. Temporal cloaking had kept them safe and hidden, nobody even suspected they were there. But they'd get the idea that something was up soon enough.

Normally, the Deep-Strike bombers would hit fleet assembles, stations and fortified locations deep behind enemy lines, or planets like this. But their weapons were normally conventional, or limited yeild weapons. This was the first time that they had been used for a terror bombing or biological weapons.

The bombs had been loaded two days prior, and they were told that they were carrying some of the most advanced ordinance in the Coalition, but after they'd been told what their mission was...things had gotten messy.

Two pilots had outright refused to go, and threatened to tell whatever news outlet they could find about the plan. They had been arrested quickly. The other four had simply refused, they hadn't been arrested, but they had been taken off flight status and re-assigned to infantry units.

After that, the units had been shuffled, and a volunteer team was set up, without weapons officers. Those were replaced with agents from the 'Sentient Coalition Peacekeeping Forces', as they identified themselves. Which was why the man sitting in the weapons officer seat behind him had a sidearm, and enough knowledge on how to launch the warheads, and that was it.

Hatch had no intent of disobeying his orders now, but the thought had cropped up when he had been issued them.

The small element of eight ships carried in total, one ton of liquid agent Ebola, one ton of liquid agent T-Virus, and less than one half a ton of dry agent G-Virus. That was enough - if properly distrubuted mind you - to muder three hundred billion beings. And with the warheads, it was garanteed for maximum dispersal over the populace.

Specially designed warheads, with sprayers, internal cloaking, propulsion, sensors and AI units, were capable of dispersing the correct amounts of microbe to maximize infection rates, dispersal, and cut down on the possiblity of natural immunity, or recovery.

Hatch felt sick, but he had his orders, and a faceless, monolith of a man behind him willing to kill him and do it anyway.

"Launch warheads and return to base on my mark." Hatch said, his hand flicking a toggle and resting his finger on the firing stud. Almost softly, a voice in the back of his head pleaded with him not to fire...but he had a job to do.

"Fire." Hatch said.

He couldn't see the weapons, or the rest of his unit, but he knew they were there. Along with other units like his, dozens, enough to kill another dozen worlds. It was sick in it's simplicity, even for all the lives that were going to die in the next few days, even for all that was going to occur, it wasn't a desicive stroke...

It was only a message.

A message that would have billions of signatures on it...signatures of the dead.

"All units, RTB, I say again, return to base. Our mission is done. And my god have mercy on our souls for completing it."

Current Casuilty totals as of;

June 1, 2554

Coalition;

Military Personnel KIA 83,996,443,223

Military Personnel WIA 192,003,023,132

Civilians KIA 123,543,221,332

Civilians WIA 0

Starships Destroyed in action 23,004

Worlds Lost 2,394

Covenant;

Military Personel KIA 304,447,987,379

Military Personel WIA 95,127,999,457

Civilians KIA 91,731,942,123

Civilans WIA 0

Starships Destroyed in action 32,032

Worlds Lost 34

And chappie.

I do appologise for the time this one took. Lotta things happened to me that made life suck for a while, plus I got banned from twice and that killed my creativity for a little.

But I'm back and I hope you all like the chapter.

The next one will come sooner,

Chapter 9: Back to the Wall


	11. Chapter 9: Back to the Wall

I'm not dead. I have returned and much more regularly.

Now, with the open use of Biological and Bio-Weapons by the Coalition, the Covenant formulate their counterstrike. And the Coalition must use not just weapons that their members fought hard to destroy, but also beings that were far more deadly.

Chapter 9: Back to the Wall

"I don't recall the word _'surrender' _being taught in the Covenant language during linguistics training."

-Spartan 7712 Jedi Knight Felix Jo'nanae Comment made to his 4 spartan squad in the face of a 40,000 strong Covenant assault at the third battle of Wolf 259.

"Come on you apes, you want to live forever?"

"Yes, we would actually."

-Unknown Sergeant and Private of the Human Alliance.

"They fight like cornered animals with automatic weapons."

-Elite Commander Olash'Vantashs after the Covenant invasion and occupation of Zegama Beach.

**Current Casuilty totals as of;**

**June 1, 2554**

**Coalition;**

Military Personnel KIA 83,996,443,223

Military Personnel WIA 192,003,023,132

Civilians KIA 123,543,221,332

Civilians WIA 0

Starships Destroyed in action 23,004

Worlds Lost 2,394

**Covenant;**

Military Personel KIA 304,447,987,379

Military Personel WIA 95,127,999,457

Civilians KIA 91,731,942,123

Civilans WIA 0

Starships Destroyed in action 32,032

Worlds Lost 34

* * *

**Covenant Hegemony Temple for the Divine Crusade,**

**Covenant Holy City 'Epioch of the Heavens',**

**June 1st 2554, 1500 Hours UST**

"Ninety billion!" The Prophet of the Divine Crusade screamed. His voice was gritty and filled with rage. Seated atop his hovering throne, he had risen up above the heads of the Brutes and Elites. They knelt before him, and winced with every sylable. His glare was enough to wither the resolve of even the most hardened Fleet Master. Flanking him on either side was a single Edengeaner Paladin of the Smiters of Evil clan. Their horrific faces and emotionless dead eyes hidden behind the hoods of their silver robes, the only the black scaled hands gripping the _Norifostraeh _staves eluded to the presence of god-like warriors.

None dare anger the silent, brooding forms of the Edengeaner as they stood silent vigil.

"Do any of you have any explanation of what was used? Any explanation at all?" The Prophet said. One of the Elite rose slowly.

"From what we gathered from the worlds before all contact was lost, a strange series of diseases and plagues afflicted the population. No medicines were able to interefere with the disease, nor were any who could resist naturally found. The disease swept through the populace in less than a day." The Elite said.

"We're well aware, but what was it?" The Prophet said.

"A Coalition weapon." Another said quietly.

"We must retaliate." Yet another said.

"This shows a dangerous change in stance in the Coalition, my lord." A paladin of the Clan, Viewers of Dreams said.

"Oh?" The prophet said.

"Yes, this shows that the Coalition is willing to match our own ferocity in the crusade with weapons just as potent and indescriminate as our own. Their evil resorts to the use of microbes as weapons. They attack our innocents, and do so with thought and purpose. But the fact that they have finally done so shows us that they are desperate...panicked... Combined with the message that was sent to us, we can clearly see that the campaign is pressing their resources. Soon they will collapse under our assault."

* * *

**UNN news transmission,**

**June 1st 2554, 1600 Hours UST**

"...reports are coming in from Coalition sorces, both in the military and the government concerning the possible use of weapons of mass destruction against the Covenant. Offical statements have made repeated reference to the use of 'any and all means available to defend the citizens of the Coalition from annihilation' in recent days. Officals did not state what that meant, but un-confirmed sources stated that two days ago an unspecified assortment of biological and bio-weapons were used against almost three dozen Covenant worlds in an attempt to bring the crushing Covenant advance to a halt and hopefuly, spur peace talks..."

* * *

**Sentient Coalition Press Release,**

**June 1st 2554, 1615 Hours UST**

'At 0900 Hours, on May 29th, 2554 UST, a multi pronged attack was launched by deep strike bombers of the 102nd Long range bombardment wing based on the New Republic Assault Carrier 'Vindicator' at an undisclosed location. Their strikes were aimed at Covenant indusrial and military worlds, key supply points and postions fueling the current assault that is being made against us. Biological weapons were used against these targets, along with geneticaly engineered bio-weapons.

Covenant military and civilian losses are estimated to be in the range of 80-100 billion spread across thirty four different worlds. This use is in response to the current invasion and large scale genocide being undertaken by the Covenant. A message has been sent to the Covenant stating that unless the Covenant withdrawls from their current conqured territiroies and leaves the members of the Coalition in peace, then further use of biological, chemical, nanological and even more destructive weapons will become commonplace.'

* * *

**UNN News Program,**

**June 2nd 2554, 1630 Hours UST**

"With the statement just released by the Coalition High command, we can only guess at the next step in this war. But all informed sources seem to be saying that if the Covenant don't halt their advance, the Coalition will go to more lethal means. Chemical, Biological, Nanological and Nuclear ordinace are all readily available for use by the Coalition, but the focus of the Coalition response centers on a more potent brand of weapon that the Coalition has...superweapons. The Death Star, the Sun Crusher, the Genesis weapon and Nova Bomb torpedoes are all available for military use. Perhaps these will be the next weapons that are unleashed in an effort to halt the Covenant genocide."

* * *

**Filmar IV, Sentient Coalition High Command,**

**Sentient Coalition Unified Armies Office,**

**June 2nd 2554, 1650 Hours UST,**

The central Universe hologram spun in the air slowly, affording a varying view of the main battlelines. The swaths of green and red that represented the Coalition and the Covenant dueled eachother across a narrow strip of black that represented the frontline. Vast areas of purple expanded far beyond these two small islands of green and red, the vastness of space, and the multitude of potential allies and enemies were represented in that endless expanse of purple.

The small army of the High Command planners and co-ordinators surrounded it, looking up at the main holo, or gathered around hundreds of smaller tactical tables and planning boards, some holographic, others flat displays, and even some paper or flimplast sheets on map boards. The sea of different uniforms were startling to see working side by side.

General Complin sat in his office, staring down at the massive holo as if it were a sporting event that he was watching from a skybox. His office was darkened as it usually was, the only light in comming from the large floor to ceiling window looking down into the command center, and the large wall holo that showed a 'top-down' image of the front.

Complin turned in his seat and looked at the map. What had been a large bulge in the frontlines stretching in towards Coalition space had now seperated into three distinct spearheads, each one aiming for a seperate, and very obvious objective.

The topmost spearhead was the largest, it's forces estimated at over fifty thousand ships, most of them subjugated races around a core of Covenant vessels, and an unknown number of infantry forces. It's objective was thought to be Coruscant, possibly two weeks away at maxium speed.

The central force was much smaller at ten thousand vessels, but was pure Covenant ships, most of them the new BattleCruiser, Dreadnought and Battleship classes. Intelligence belived that the ground forces were the top of the line and the best that the Covenant had. It's own Edenganer paladins leading a force of Yhuuzan Vong, Annubis Warriors, along with Star Spawn Shock troops. They were aimed at the United Stellar States homeworlds. They would be there in less than a week.

The lower force was made up of a comperable ten thousand vessels, made up of standard Covenant ships, weaker, but their crews were veterans. This strike force was carrying Lizards mostly, and Yevetha in addition to the regular Covenant line troops. They were almost a week away from the Human Alliance's home systems.

Even a rudementary student of strategy could understand what was going on, the Covenant were aiming a blow at the three strongest members of the Sentient Coalition, and possibly remove them from the equation by topling the command and control structures of them. The Covenant had begun to view the war as less of an extermination and more of an actual war aginst another power of comperable strength. A war that they were either tired of fighting, or worried about losing.

The Covenant strategic plan appeared simple, but if their expected objectives were correct, their inteligence, logistical planning and military preperations were woefuly inadequate.

They'd sent their forces towards the three most capable powers in the Coalition. While the New Republic and the Empire were stretched and their fleets had been forward deployed against the Covenant, ground forces and defences on Coruscant had not been weakened in the slightest. Coruscant had two key factors going for it, one it was the most heavily defended world in New Republic or Imperial space, possibly the only reason that the New Republic had taken it from Ysanne Isard was that she wanted the rebels to have the planet. Combined with the fact that Coruscant was one of the largest urban centers in the known universe, it was a world covered in a city, any inch of ground would be pain a thousandfold in blood by any invading force.

The Human Alliance hadn't been able to commit even a tenth of the forces they had wanted to for the fighting agianst the Covenant...and that was only half their fleet they wanted to commit. The Human Alliance Fleets were still deployed amongst their own systems due to the threat posed by the Antarans and the Harvesters, very potent enemies for the Human Alliance, and not something they could ignore. Along with the presence of their fleets, a substantial number of Human Alliance ground and Fighter forces remained in defense of Human Alliance territory, and to provide defense for Sentient Coallition High command; although from what Coalition intelligence could decipher, the Covenant had no idea there was a High Command for the Coalition, let alone it's location.

As for the United Stellar States, they were one of the two the most unique groups within the Coalition. Their galaxy represented a huge number of different groups and races from other galaxies, from Lizards to Klingons and Yautja there were a host of other alien races present, as if the Forerunner Alliance had decided to throw them all together just for laughs. Combined with a strange injection of several of the specemins that the Forerunner Library held had made for a very unique galaxy. Higly militarized, higly industrialized and a united galaxy in which every being felt a strong sense of loyalty to the central government and a strong martial pride.

Covenant would get their heads and other body parts handed to them if they went knocking on the United Stellar States.

But the possiblity that they could suceed was not the disturbing part of this entire invasion. That was far from being the most worry-some matter, the fact that the Covenant were avoiding a massive, grinding advance across the entire front was the point of concern. The Covenant had a new general, but who or what it was continued to elude Coalition intelligence. What they did know was that it was not a member of the conventional Covenant command structure.

It was something new and dangerous. Complin still found himself unable to sleep at night because of the thought that the Covenant were a major threat before they had a strategic plan, now they could possibly wipe out the Coalition.

* * *

**Filmar IV, Sentient Coalition High Command,**

**Office of the Unified Commander,**

**June 2nd 2554, 1659 Hours UST,**

Grand Admiral Kurrs Anjek also sat alone in his office, just as Complin was, although his thoughts were just as grim and worried as Complins, his however held a much more complicated dimension of worry. While Complin's concerns were merely within the realm of ground forces, Anjek worried over the larger war. Which right now was not going well at all.

Coalition troops were being overrun in desperate holding actions and defensive positions. Many were simply being crushed by the overwhelming force of numbers that the Covenant were hurling at them. Even if a Coalition soldier was worth a hundred Covenant 'Conscripts' it didn't matter of the Covenant had two hundred to throw at him.

The discrepancy in battle fleets was just as pronounced. Combined technology in the Coalition meant that a single warship could devestate entire fleets of Covenant vessels without sustaining so much as a scratch. Unfortunately there were precious few ships that combined that immense technological advantage into a single combined vessel. The Imperial Star Destroyer Mk. IV, and the SSF-20 space superiority fighter and it's heavy bomber brother were the only really hybrid weapons that the Coalition had. Other than a few notable exceptions, areospace forces were a motley collection that had to be used with extreme inventiveness, otherwise they would be crushed without the blink of an eye.

Anjek couldn't help but feel that making him a strategic commander was one of the worst moves that the Coalition could have done. He was a tactical thinker more than he was a strategic thinker. His skills were best alligned towards command of individual ships and squadrons, not the grand scheme of fleets and armadas writhing to wage interstellar war across a plane so grand as the Coalition and the Hegemony. But he was here, now, and for all the short commings that he had in his position, he was here, now...and for lack of a better commander to fill his position he was here.

Anjek turned his chair and looked at the wall holo of the war. It's shifting lines were visible as the main spearheads of the Covenant invasion forces reached on towards their projected objectives. Even as Anjek watched, one group began to enter his home galaxy, most likely on it's way to Coruscant. Deep within Anjek the desire to return and lead the Imperial fleet in the defense burned strong, but he had a much wider duty now, one that stretched beyond the loss of a single star system, or even a galaxy.

The skeletal Imperial Grand Admiral raised his hand and looked at his chrono.

1700 Hours.

Operation Medusa Touch was now being implimented.

Even though he was not force sensative, Anjek could feel the shockwave ripple through the force. He wondered for a moment what a Jedi or a Wizard felt at a moment when a billion lives were being eradicated like an insect colony before an angry gardener. As Anjek watched several points of orange appeared on the map, deep within the red flash of the Covenant. Carefully Anjek thought about what had been authorized in the strikes this time...

_Ebola...Anthrax...Teulieran Plague...T Virus...G Virus...Smallpox...Hunter Bio-Weapons...and that new breed...Fossil Birkin called it, plus the Sarin, Soman, Tabun and VX... _Anjek thought with the detachment that his command gave him. For him, a few hundred billion enemy civilians and soldiers being murdered by a disease or a nerve agent or even a bio-weapon was nothing more than a statistic. Such power indifference to genocide held.

For a fleeting moment, Anjek felt what Tarkin must have felt as he obliterated Alderaan...or Hitler...or Stalin...or Mao...

For a breif moment, Anjek felt as though he were on their level.

But for as fleeting a moment it was, it vanished, replaced with the grim knowledge that morals and judgement were luxuries afforded to the historians that would judge his actions decades later. They were not something so easily given to those that fought the wars.

Anjek returned to his chair and turned back to look down into the main command center. On the center hologram, many more symbols were moving than just the deep-strike bomber wings that carried payloads of death. Hundreds of thousands of fighter wings, fleet detachments and other units were moving against Covenant supply lines. Dilithium and Elerium had given the Covenant much more power and combat potential, but it had linked them to finite supply lines, those supply lines also carried ammuntion, food and parts to keep the Covenant ground forces supplied and it's fighters flying.

His advisor, Carl Donitz had theorized that such a plan had potential if implimented on a large enough scale.

That was why this operation was called Medusa Touch. The units were ordered to destroy any Covenant supply convoys with extreme predjudice, along with Bio-weapon strikes to knock out key refineries and mine worlds. In more long term objectives, units were being sent deep into Covenant space to work at pinning more Covenant resources into defending their rear areas. It was simple and elementary war-fighting principles, but the Covenant were not ones who caught on quickly. With luck, the Covenant would slow, at least long enough for Operation Great End to begin.

Anjek reached down and entered the proper commands to open his secured file drawer. His fingers danced across the surface in the correct series of taps which relayed not only the code, but a wealth of biometric information to the lock, which gave the command to open rather than destroy the contents of the entire office.

The drawer slid open, as it did a fine cloud of smoke escaped, letting Anjek know that the drawer had remained sealed since the last time he had opened it.

Anjek reached into the murky depths and retrived the small data-slug. He placed it into the desktop computer and immedealy the air in front of him was filled with statistics and information.

_105,000 Sun Crusher Supernova torpedoes construction completed._

_1.3 Million X-Com Style NovaBomb torpedoes construction completed._

_100,000 Genesis style Federation torpedo weaopons construction completed._

_Galaxy-Gun construction complteted, 40,000 missiles armed and primed._

_4 Superlaser units construction completed, awaiting mounting._

_5,000 Stellar Converter armed starships construction completed._

Anjek read the short list twice and sighed. If Operation Medusa Touch did not achieve the goal of slowing the Covenant assault, then more drastic actions would have to be taken. Anjek knew the principles of terror bombing and the purpose of Superweapons. Their intent was to force an enemy into submision by making them fear eradication. And right now there were enough Superweapons available to eradicate nearly all of the origional Covenant Home systems. Such an act would be one of titanic desperation and not one to be taken likely. Using these weapons would be a drastic step. But if Coruscant, or Earth, or Sol fell, then there would be litle choice. If the Covenant could crush those centers of resistance then there would be no way that the Coalition could resist for much long after that.

Anjek closed the list and returned the data-slug to the drawer. He resealed it and cast his gaze back into the main command center.

Their backs really were to the wall.

* * *

**Forest Moon of Endor,**

**Sentient Coalition Fighter Base,**

**June 2nd 2554, 1700 Hours UST,**

Calling the landing field simple would be generous. Calling it primitive would have been much more accurate. There was no reall landing strip at all, none was needed though since all the starfighters were VTOL craft. Instead, the landing pads had merely been chopped out of the forest underbrush with hand tools and compacted down with simple earthmoving equipment. It was effective enough and simple enough to keep the fighters and bombers concealed from sensor scans. Camo netting had been thrown up along with fast growing 'sensor shurubs' - a bio-engineered plant made by the Human Alliance for fast camoflage in the field-. All the fighters were powered down, only minimal internal systems were running within them, which mean minimal energy signatures to detect. A few camoflaged barracks buildings and storage bunkers that were little more than pits dug into the dirt with some logs set up over them for armor, dotted the base.

From orbit there was no way to see the figher wing or it's base facilities. The camoflage work was good, it had to be. There was enough space in the base for another two wings of starfighters, but there wouldn't be any more comming. The only craft there were a single flight of X-Wings, a full wing of Human Alliance built SSF-20 starfighters and half a wing of B-Wing bombers. A motely collection to defend a planet, but more than enough to run convoy raiding.

Right now, the carefully camoflaged and shielded fighters were being powered up and preparing for launch. Ground crewmen and pilots wore camoflaged fatigues rather than standard jumpsuits, the need for concealment went beyond the pride and ego that the Areospace forces posessed.

Shining Armor clambered into the cockpit of his SSF-20 and began running through the pre-flight checks. While it could be argued that as a Sentient Machine he didn't get suprised and could be 'unfamiliar' with a technology, the information on some of his fighter's newer systems had not been anylized as thuroughly as most data-files in his memory buffer. But even with the relatively new nature of the technology for Shining Armor, there were relatively few modifications that could be made to the SSF-20, it was the best starfighter in the Coalition arsenal.

Shining Armor turned a photo-receptor towards the X-Wing pilots, their craft were adequate at best. They were manuverable and fast, but lightly armed, armored and shielded. They were more than a match one-on-one with anything the Covenant could muster, from Death Gliders to Seraph fighters. But these days it was getting to be more and more about attrition than it was about superior weapons.

"Sliverback wing is ready, sir." Shining Armor heard arcoss the comm. He turned back and looked through the still open canopy at the new squadron he had. They weren't green, but they weren't very far from being rookies. Mostly they were humans, conscription into the Areospace forces had been stepped up back before the Battle of Earth, and now many of the new recruits had finished training and were being pushed into the line with new fighters and bombers.

"Indigo and Rail flights, are you ready?" Shining armor asked over the comm, turning his attention to the X-Wing flight. Those pilots weren't rookies. They'd been in campaigns against the Yhuuzan Vong and the Covenant, they were veterans. But they were few in number. Experianced New Republic and Imperial Fighter pilots were hard to come by and even harder to keep alive. More and more the title that pilots aimed to achieve was that of 'Survivor' or having actually survived a single mission...a far cry from days when pilots wanted to make 'Ace'. Shining Armor had made 'Ace' a hundred times over in the space above Earth.

"Ready." A weary voice said. Every pilot knew what the Covenant armada was aiming for in this galaxy, Coruscant.

"Alright then, we all know the mission plan and the objectives. Hit the supply depot hard and fast. Destroy what we can and RTB." Shining Armor said, he sealed the canopy and triggered the contra-grav generators arrayed around the fighter and gently lifted it from the landing pad. As his ship lifted, the ground crew pitched cammo nets over the empty landing pads, returning the total concealment the base relied on for survival.

The SSF-20's, X-Wings and B-wings soared up through the massive trees of Endor and into open space, the planet fell far behind them as the ships arrayed themselves for the jump to light speed. The entire unit fell into comm silence automatically as they activated their perspective FTL drives and leapt into the void of super-light speeds. But it was a short hop. Only two light years from Endor, in relatively deep space a massive supply depot sat. Cargo vessels towed vast stores of Dilithium, Elerium, Naquida, and a dozen other fuels through slipspace. Massive stockpiles of ammunition and other supplies were all being gathered by the Covenant, ready to support the grueling campaign to take Couscant.

As one, the fighter craft dropped back into real-space and steeled themselves for the task before them.

Unlike the fleet marshalling points that had been set up by the Covenant to deal with the UNSC. Somewhere along the line, the Covenant had decided that losing three of the massive facilities and the battle-fleets with them...made them decide to avoid using them.

But even without the massive battle-station standing guard over the supply depot it was a massive collection. Some small stations had been set up and linked together to make huge cargo storage facilities, massive tanks spun in space containing fuel and minerals, huge 'hives' of containers floated free, kept in place by low power tractor beams. Bulbous Covenant freighters emerged from slip-space at random, immense cargo containers being towed in their wake. Miniscule cargo tugs and other transport craft swarmed through the depot.

And presiding over this ant colony were the large shapes of two Covenant Cutters. Similar in size to a Corellian Corvette, each could boast the firepower to tangle with a Mon Calamari cruiser and give it a bloody nose. And that was a lot of firepower considering the newer MC250's that they were building in the Mon Calamari yards these days.

"Alright, Sliverback, scatter and start to hit whatever you can destroy with your Ionic Pulsar warheads. Indigo, you and Rail aim for the fuel tankers. Those are the most vulnerable to your warheads." Shining Armor said.

"Right. Well play as long as those Cutters don't try to swat us. Then we'll be more worried about them." Indigo flight replied. As one, the X and B wings peeled off and began to head for the large fuel tanks and Covenant tankers that held their own little quadrant of the depot.

"Silverback, let's go." Shining armor said. In unison, the 36 fighters in Silverback wing scattered and headed towards all differend areas of the depot, intent on wreaking as much havoc as they could before the Covenant Cutters started to try and swat them. Shining Armor hit the throttle and the SSF-20 leapt through the void, his nose mounted gattling rail-guns aimed at the cockpit of a large freighter moving to dock with one of the smaller storage stations. The Sentinent Machine hit the firing stud and twin lines of projectiles erupted from the muzzles of the cannons. The bright energy bundles that encased each round gave a green hue to the barrage.

The rounds connected and began to systematically rip apart the bridge. Unlike Covenant warships, freighters and transports didn't have the armored protection and ships hull completely encasing it. It was open, and unshielded.

The bridge exploded as an Anti-matter round hit and oblitereated the command module. The massive frieghter listed and began to tumble in space. Shining Armor brought his fighter around and headed for another of the large docile freighters as his first target slammed into the station, engines locked on maximum thrust. The massive forces of two opposing objects ramming together became too much for the freighter to handle, somewhere deep within is cargo bays and engine passages, explosions began to rip through it. As they did, secondary explosions began to trigger off the munitions it was carrying, then...what had been a freighter and a docking station were turnined into a rapidly expanding cloud of superheaded gasses and debris.

Shining Armor spun his fighter in space and brought it around, aiming at another transport and repeating his demolition of the ships' bridge, however, this one wasn't in danger of ramming anything if it went out of control. Shining Armor locked a Ionic Pulsar missile and fired it. The round hurled through space and punched through the main window of the bridge. The missile continued it's path, layers of armor and shielding allowing it to punch through internal bulkheads with ease before detonating deep within the bowels of the ammo hauler. It met the same fate as the first that Shining armor targeted.

For a moment, the machine turned it's attention to the rest of Silverback Wing. They were doing an extremely effective job of destroying everything they could shoot at. Shining couldn't count the number of freighters taken down, or the amount of supplies that had been destroyed in a few minutes action. But it was definetly enough to make an occupation or support of an invasion of Coruscant difficult.

"This is Indigo. We've got the Cutters bearing down on us. Plus these stations launched fighter cover, Death Gliders. No Seraphs."

"Roger, did you take out the tanks?" Shining armor asked. He looked out to the Covenant fuel depot and was not suprised to see large clouds of debris and nebulas of vented fuel.

"Affirmative."

"Let's scatter and rondevous at base." Shining Armor said. The fighters all launched in different directions with the FTL drives and abandoned the wounded base. It wasn't much, but it was far from being the last time they'd hit this depot, or any other. But for the moment, they did all they could, and Shining Armor had express orders from High Command 'Experianced personnel are worth more than victory'.

He had to preserve his pilots.

Shining Armor leapt into FTL space after every other fighter had done so. He knew that Operation Medusa Touch would be a long arduous campaign. But he also knew that no matter how grueling the campaign in space was, the ground forces had it even worse.

* * *

**Tatooine, The Dune Sea,**

**Remnants of the Sentient Coalition 192nd Armored Division,**

**June 12th, 2554, 0800 UST**

The sight of a full Division's worth of SC-MA1 Main Battle Tanks with their 90mm main rail cannons, AI assisted targeting systems, contragrav propulsion units, energy shielding, Zortium armor and integral thermoptic camoflage generators; and acompanying mechanized infantry units in their SC-APC-1's would be enough to shake the resolve of the most hardened Covenant soldier, conscript or otherwise. Backed up by the fire support of almost a Brigade of artillery and air support a Coalition Armored Division would be able to lay waste to any that dared confront it.

But now the remnants of the 192nd armored division had been battered down to little more than a barely combat effective Regiment in the course of less than two days worth of fighting against three full Covenant Armies...nearly four Divisions worth of Covenant Armor and twice as many worth of infantry. Although that wasn't to say that they had been smacked like an errant child, quite the contrary, the 192nd had managed to rather thorougly eradicate the better part of two entire Covenant Armies and two divisions in two days, leaving the remainder of the Covenant forces reorganized into just three divisions that were capable of assuming an offensive stance.

"God I hate sand..." Lance Corporal Lung Wei said from his position seated on the edge of the gunners hatch on top of the SC-MA1 Main Battle Tank. The former member of the Taiwanese National Defense Force was both gunner and main engineer for the rather sophistocated piece of equipment that the crew had.

"And heat...and the suns, both of them...we know." Staff Sergeant Eric Laforge said, head and shoulders out of his command hatch and looking across the wastes of the dune sea with a pair of macro-binoculars. Laforge was a former member of the Saudi Arabian Republic and well versed with fighting in terrain as inhospitable as this, but the ability to hover over the battlefeild in an SC-MA1 brought whole new dimensions to combat.

Not that it mattered much when you were facing three _armies_ and all you had against them was a _division_. As he had for the past two days of near constant combat Laforge cursed Coalition High Command for leaving the division to be wiped out on this Allah-forsaken sand ball. Right now the tank was hull down behind a dune, scant cover given the ever increasing lethality of the Covenant weapons being arrayed aginst them. He'd seen the new Covenant Plasma cannons on their refitted Wraith tanks chop through the heavy Zortium armor on Coalition tanks like it wasn't even there. A few dozen feet of sand was nothing.

Laforge's mind flashed back to the first engagements less than two days ago, it was just a blurr of furious fighting and combat, whirling masses of armored forces slamming into oneanother. Infantry formations trying to stay alive in the carnage that had been dealt against each other...

The formations had dueled across a hundred miles of featureless desert and rock, now littered with the still burning husks of tanks and APCs. SC-MA1's and Wraith tanks both burned freely in the sands. The long pillars of smoke drifted lazily in the faint breeze, turning the sky into a hazy gray instead of the normal blue. Laforge also looked down at the bodies that seemed to carpet the desert. Both the forms of Coalition troopers in their black armor that had been covered with improvised burlap or other tan colored cloth for camoflage, and the Covenant Conscripts in their sandy-tan colored armor. A few of the bodies were intact, but most had been ripped apart, from both the force of the weapons that had been arrayed against them, and the force of the vehicles that had rumbled over them. Perhaps the tank crews had it better off in death, being burned or crushed to death inside a Zortium casket seemed a more...private...matter than being murdered as you ran across a sand dune.

No one seemed intent to clear up the corpses as they lay in the sand. Perhaps some thought that doing so would admit their own mortality, and their own more than likely death on this dust ball.

"Oi!" A voice hollered up from one side of the tank. Laforge lifted his head up higher and removed the comms/Heads up display helmet he normally wore. His hand remained clenched on the DL-44 blaster he'd bought before moving out, the Covenant were starting to use infiltraitors. Laforge looked over one of the hastily arranged rocks straped to the turret side for extra armor and saw Major Peter Olgove, the commander of the remaining Infantry troops in the Division. Olgove stood with his helmet straped to one hip, and was wearing a wide brimmed tanned hat and a pair of sunglasses on in it's place. He was also wearing the improvised poncho like burlap camoflage that the rest of the infantry had worn when they discovered the optic camoflage their armor had was much less than effective. Olgove had a bandoler of gauss clips and an alternating one of grenades strapped on over his poncho, along with his load bearing gear keeping the burlap from flapping in the mild breeze. His M21 Gauss rifle dangling under his right arm, the weapon was wraped in the same improvised cammo he wore. On his right forearm he had an improvised houlster that held a small piece of wood.

Peter Olgove was a Wizard, as well as being the highest ranked living officer on the planet.

"Yes sir?" Laforge said and saluted.

"Covenant are moving up their forces for another push towards Mos Eisley they brought up five more army groups to support them, fleet is ready to pull out what we have left and retreat.

"What?" Lance Corporal El-iye, a masive stone like Vathkree and the only native member of this galaxy, he stuck his head up from the driver's position in the main hull of the tank. He was an incredibly tight fit but an incredibly good tanker none the less.

"We've done what we can, and there's no point in dying here for any more ground. The Civilians were all evacuated and now we need to pull out what soldiers we have left." Olgove said.

"But...what about all the soldiers that have already died here?" Wei asked.

"I don't like it any more than you. But there's no point in fighting a fight we can't win. We're pulling back to Mos Eisley and getting of planet." Olgove replied.

"Where to?"

"Coruscant." Olgove said, he turned and began to walk back to the command APC he had. All around the line, the tanks were powering up and beginning to move. El-iye crawled back inside his control space and activated the tank. Wei returned to the gunners space and began to check the main weapons systems on the tank. Laforge stayed right where he was. He raised the Macro-binoculars and looked out across the wrecks and bodies that covered the sand, and he saw the Covenant, still rumbling forward, even after so many lives had been taken from their ranks.

"Let's go." Laforge said over the tank frequency. Slowly, the entrenched line of tanks turned and withdrew, leaving behind one more battle that they would win, but a war for a planet that they would lose.

"How many more planets are we going to give up sarge?" Wei asked, poking his head out of his hatch.

"I don't know. Hopefuly we'll hold Coruscant, if not...I don't know what we can hold."

"Let's get dug in boys." Chester Jamenson said as the squad began walking through the deserted streets of Mos Eisley. Behind him, the remaining twenty five troopers of the platoon nodded and headed towards a low building that seemed a good place to dig in. Jamenson was the highest ranked survivor of his unit, a Corporal. Fighting had been brutal for the infantry, and right now they were looking forward to getting off world. But the infantry and a few tanks had been tasked with holding onto as much of Mos Eisley and buying enough time for the heavy armor and as much equipment as possible to be pulled out.

It wasn't going to be an easy task, but it wasn't going to be a cake walk for the Covenant either.

The rather formidable building was in fact, the Mos Eisley cantina, not exactly a fortified bunker, but enough for the task at hand.

"Alright, get the Gups set up and chop some firing holes in the walls." Jamenson said looking around the inside of the building. It was deserted, the owner and whatever looters that targeted the place had taken everything that a soldier would like to get his hands on. Such as anything with any inctoxicating properties. Jamenson walked around to the back of the building and looked out the rear exit. It led out into the many narrow alleys and warrens of the city, Jamenson knew that more than once people had fled through these narrow passages.

The Coalition soldier returned inside and helped his men begin to dig in, they weren't to fight to the death, but they were going to fight for as long as they could. Through-out the deserted city other units were turning buildings into small fortresses, stockpiles of ammuntion and anti-tank weapons were being made.

In the open sands of Tatooine, the Covenant could overwhelm the Coalition, but in the narrow streets and boulevards of Mos Eisley, they would never have such an easy time of it.

Illitat-o's-tapek lay on top of a two story house on the south side of Mos Eisley. He'd picked his hide well, he had a sweeping view of the main East-west street in the city, and could very easily shift his fire along the south side of town. There would be few better defensive positions on the entire planet. Mos Eisley was an ancient city, and it had been origionally built to hold up to the possiblity of a Tusken Raider attack. A few of the older city walls were still in place, and although not very formidable, enough to make any assault bog down in the main thuroughfares or slow down as they tried to cross the walls. Such a slow down would be lethal in the urban street fighting that was about to begin. The transports would have more than enough time to load the tanks and infantry before the spaceport was overrun.

The Barbel looked out across the desert beyond the walls and watched the mass formations of Covenant soldiers moving towards the city. It was quite a sight, especially since it was led by a number of massive Scarabs. The huge walkers were an equal match for an AT-AT, or an AT-MT, they weren't as well armed, but they were a mixture of manuverability and sheer durability in the face of small arms fire.

But not heavy artillery fire. More than one Scarab had fallen to close infantry assault in the Dune Sea, and now they would fall by the dozens in this assault.

Illitat looked through the scope of his SM-21 Gauss sniper rifle and he suddenly had a very close view of a Covenant Elite two miles distant, but the image was as though he were mere meters away. The seasoned sniper slowly swept his cross hairs over the group of Covenant Commanders and carefuly sought out his prey. Beneath his camoflage, his active cloaking and hidden behind a low wall of adobe bricks, the hunter of sentient beings was invisible to any retaliation.

Two miles away from that snipers nest, the command element of the remaining Covenant forces on planet stood around a small holographic map table in the blistering heat and blinding sunlight. The gold clad commander spoke with his red and black armored fellow officers beneath the watchful eye of a white armored observer. The commander did not like being supervised in such a way, but it was ordered by the prophets and would be obeyed.

"All forces are ready Commander." One of the lesser, blue armored commanders said. The Gold clad commander smiled and nodded.

"Prepare the attack, we shall soon wipe the aliens from this world, and secure the path to their planet known as 'Coruscant'." The Gold armored commander said and gestured towards the human settlement with an imperous motion. Triumph would be soon in coming, and so very sweet. The Elite brought his fist closed in a gesture of finality, right as a gauss needle, slightly larger and longer than his thumb claw blew through his clenched fist and buried itself in his forehead before exploding his skull and brain like an over-ripe fruit.

Illitat centered his crosshairs on the forehead of the gold armored commander. He slowly applied pressure to the trigger of his weapon, delicatly enough that he didn't ruin his shot by the action. It was almost too much to handle, the wait before the kill shot. But the trigger's resistance finally broke and sent the gauss needle darting across the two miles in distance and right into the Covenant commander's head before detonaiting and showering the rest of the staff with his brain and blood.

Then, methodically, Illitat swept over the small sand dune as though he were death incarnate, all single shots to the head, all kill shots. One by one the othe Elites were slaughtered as they tried to scramble for cover or return fire at such an impossible range. The Barbel smiled wickedly as he lay behind his cover, and slowly he swept his barrel around and sought out fresh prey.

"Range... 2000 meters..." The gunner said silently. The control system for the M112 HIMAT missile was clutched in his hands, the binocular like sighting array was pointed out at the massive form of the lead Scarab walker that was making it's way towards Mos Eisley. The 'crosshairs' of the weapon were leveled at the leg joint of the massive machine. Even with the new enhanced warheads, HIMAT missiles were rather patchy on dealing with a full fledged Scarab, Wraiths were alright, Scarabs were another matter though...

"Wait for it." The commander said.

"Range...1900 Meters..." The gunner recited.

"Wait for it."

"Range, 1500 Meters..."

"Wait for it."

"Range, 1200 Meters..." The gunner said, his voice starting to waver. He could actually here the steps of the Scarabs as they drew closer to the position.

"Wait for it..."

"1000 meters god damn it..." The gunner said.

"Fire."

The gunner complied quickly. He hit the firing stud on the HIMAT visor and 100 feet away the missile roared out of it's verticle launch tube. It shot up into the air twenty feet, clearing the building that hid it from view, and then leveled out on a direct course for the Scarab. In less than a heartbeat, the Elerium enhanced warhead connected and detonated on impact with the much more vulnerable knee join of the walker. With a slightly lackluster bang the warhead vaporized the joint and sent the Scarab tumbling to the ground. As it gouged a path in the sand, it's brothers concentrated their fire on the position where the missile had come from.

But there was no point, no one had been crewing the weapon, and those that had fired the missile were running for their lives, falling back deeper into the city where the Scarabs couldn't reach. But even as they fell back, Coalition snipers, and even regular infantry were picking off the crew of the crippled walker as they tried to escape.

The first Covenant forces that entered Mos Eisley were the Scarabs. The massive combat walkers simply strode over the walls and past the hard points of resistance, moving deep inside the city. But unfortunately, the Covenant had not learned the hard lessons that the Empire had when they began to use AT-AT's. The Empire learned early on that walkers were not invincible and unstoppable killing machines, they were tools whose main goal was to smash resistance in open terrain, a job which they did admirably. AT-AT's however fell to the same thing that had been the scourge of armored forces throughout the ages, built up terrain.

While a Scarab was much more heavily armored and faster than an AT-AT, it didn't have nearly the same battery of sensors, weapons and infantry complement it's Imperial counterpart. That lack of infantry and lack of tactics meant that the Scarabs went down...hard. In built up terrain where infantry could move without fear of being cut down, they held the advantage, especially with the improved anti-armor weapons that they posessed.

"Load." Private Karen O'doull said. Behind her, Private Quinn Deitrich took an RPG and loaded it into the rear of the shoulder launcher Karen had. He whacked the back of her helmet and she stepped outside the door of the house they were hiding in, and aimed straight up at the Scarab that was standing still right over them. She aimed along the simple optical sight the weapon had and centered the cross hairs right over a knee. With a snarl she fired the weapon and ducked back into cover. With a satisfied crack, the elerium warhead detonated and knocked the Scarab off balance.

"Move it. Next firing position. Haul that ass." Karen said and started to run, her ammo hauler following right behind as the massive crash from the falling Scarab shook loose sand from the ceiling.

After the Scarabs the full weight of the Covenant moved into the city. But they didn't have the same autonomy that the Scarabs held. They were limited to several main streets which the Coalition infantry had turned into brutal kill zones. M21 gauss fire came from nearly every window that faced into the eastern entrance of the city. There were a few emplaced M90 gass cannons that were set up, and these laid down a near constant battery of fire, knocking apart Covenant troops as they tried to push into the city. Wraith tanks also fell quickly to a well sighted pair of SC-MA1 tanks that had volunteered to be the last out. Their 90mm railguns sent rounds ripping through the armor of the tanks as they tried to provide fire support and cover for the advancing infantry. Spectre scout vehicles and Ghosts tried to speed through the sheets of gauss needles, but to no avail; if not for accuracy, then sheer volume of fire killed the crews of the poorly armored and dreadfully fragile vehicles.

Before even fifteen minutes of fighting had elapsed, the eastern entrance had become too cloged with tank hulks and bodies for the advance to continue. Instead the Covenant forces began to tear holes in the walls of the city with plasma fire and send in waves of infantry to filter through the city and begin to take ground for the armor to advance. This was when the battle started to become brutal.

Fireteam Zeta-2 was the last of their company, origionally 120 troopers strong, they were the last four troopers from their entire regiment to still survive the brutal fighting in the Dune Sea. Right now they were dug into what had been a small store. It had two sets of large open windows that looked out onto the street. They made great firing positions, since the thick adobe walls easily fended off plasma fire. The teams's M40 was set up in one, and the rest of the unit was set up at the other one.

Right now they estimated that they had gone through about 2000 rounds of ammunition.

They were confidant they'd killed at least 900 Covenant soldiers by their estimation. Two of the streets that lead into the square that the building was overlooking were blocked off by a four foot high walls of corpses. The conscripts were using the bodies as cover while they tried to move up. But even as one squad provided cover for another to move up, they were chopped to pieces. It was slaughter, but they felt no remorse for the fighting, it was very simple...if the Covenant had half a chance, they'd kill them just as easily.

The Cantina had been hit hard. Jamenson's origional unit of 25 had been reduced to 9. But they had slaughtered over a thousand Covenant soldiers as they'd tried to push through the relatively open street in front of the Cantina and get inside. The Covenant had come in waves rather than a constant opressive mass. That was what had saved the troops holding the cantina from annihilation, just as they were about to be overrun the assault petered out and they were alright for the moment.

Their ammunition was holding out very well, but they were nearly out of soldiers to hold the line. Jamenson looked out a large hole in the wall that had been blasted through by a fuel rod cannon. Several tables and chairs had been piled in place to obscure the opening. Jamenson looked out and he couldn't see the street for the corpses that laid on top of it. From the other side of the street, the ocasional shot rang out from a Covenant carbine, but it was getting quiet right now.

They were going to make another push.

Jamenson raised his M21 and held it up to his shoulder.

A loud battle cry came from the throats of what could have been a hundred Covenant soldiers. They ran from the cover of the alleys and doorways across the streets, carbines raised and firing, the blue energy bayonets on them charged and ready. The conscripts laid down supressing fire as they ran, aided by a pair of portable plasma cannons that were set on a rooftop, the long streams of blue fire swept over the walls and openings trying to keep the Coalition defenders down and not firing.

But the defenders were firing everything they had and then some. The Covenant assault was being chopped apart as they charged, but they were pushing with enough troopers that it didn't matter, they were going to reach the front door of the Cantina.

"Fall back! Second line!" Jamenson said as he backed away from the opening, still firing. The other members of the unit did the same, leaping behind a small barricade of tables, chairs and crates they'd thrown up around the rear exit.

"FRAG OUT!" One trooper screamed and pitched a spoked disk out through the front door, a vortex mine. The trooper dove behind the barricade as the mine detonated and smashed in the thick walls of the cantina that faced the street. With a loud crack and crash, the front entry was reduced to rubble. That left only one way in, the hole in the wall. As one, the troopers shifted their aim to the jagged hole and began to fire as soon as the first armored boot came through it.

The armored enemy troopers were literally ripped apart by the massed fire that was being leveled against them. At such close range the small arms fire was doing as much damage as a wheat threasher, the Covenant bodies were piling up in front of the opening, but they just kept comming. A few managed wild shots before they went down, but no serious fire came in at them.

Then, as suddenly as the furious assault began, it stopped.

The Coalition infantry didn't move, they stayed right behind their barricade and waited, rifles still aimed.

And what seemed like a small hail of plasma grenades flew through the gap. The blue orbs sailed into the room and made a small burning carpet in the few seconds that they exsisted. Without hesitation the troopers ducked as the grenades went off. Another bestial battle cry cut the air and the Covenant conscripts hurtled through the hole, carbines blazing away to pin down the Coalition troops. Even with the hail of radioactive projectiles flying at them, the troopers still stood and kept firing their M21 Gauss rifles. But the enemy wasn't bottled up, they were nearly on them. With a final rush the consripts hurled over the barricade and were engaged in bloody hand to hand combat with the ragged defenders.

Jamenson moved his thumb and flicked the switch to extend the energy bayonet on his rifle. The while blade blazed into existence, just as a Covenant trooper made a lunge at him. He parried the stab at his midsection with the barrel of his weapon then brought the energy blade up from his attacker waist to his chin. The alien fell back with a spray of black blood coming from the ripped apart armor. Jamenson then smashed the butt of his M21 into the faceplate of another conscript with enough force to snap the creature's neck.

He calmly brought the rifle to his him and kept firing, trying to push back the conscripts enough for them to retreat. After the furiously short exchange, the head of the assault was gone, along with four more troopers. They had to fall back _now_.

"Frags then we run!" Jamenson snarled over the squad net. As one the remaining troopers tossed flechette grenades and vortex mines into the cantina before falling back through their bolt hole. Jamenson fired off a needler flechette grenade from his M200 launcher slung beneath his rifle and ran along behind his unit, trying to fall back to the spaceport before they were over-run.

"Reverse...reverse...hold." Laforge said looking behind the turret of the SC-MA1. The loadmaster on the Imperial dropship was moving him back with a pair of lighrods. Since the driver of any tank had trouble seeing behind, the commander usually pulled duty as the eyes of the driver, and moving inside the extremely cramped confines of an Imperial drop ship was not an easy task. The tank settled into it's position without causing any damage and the crew began to strap down the main battle tank for lift off.

"Let's more people!" The loadmaster shouted over the rumble of the ships engines.

"How long before lift off?" Laforge asked, getting out of his tank.

"Ten minutes, we've got to grab the infantry and then bolt." The load master said, gesturing to the main embarkation ramp that was hanging open. Outside Laforge saw the white armored forms of Imperial Stormtroopers and the black armored forms of Imperial Naval troopers crouched behind makeshift barricades, their weapons set up to cover the escaping Coalition infantry. Even as Laforge watched, the imperial forces began to fire as Coalition infantry began to race into the open clearing of the landing pad. Behind them followed Covenant troops. The firefight escalated quickly and all along the perimiter of the landing pad, the imperials were trading blasterfire with the Covenant. Laforge drew his DL-44 and added to the covering fire. Troopers raced past him, carrying equipment and supplies, along with wounded comrades. Two troopers hustled by, carrying another between them, pink blood flowed liberally onto the deck plating as they set him down next to the tank.

"Fall back! We are leaving now!" The loadmaster screamed from the base of the ramp. He stood there, oblivious to the Covenant fire that was filling the air and ocasionally snapping of a shot with his own carbine. The final Coalition troops ran past the barricaded Stormtroopers and Naval troopers, they fell back as well, beneath the cover of Tie fighters and the blaster cannon on the drop ship.

The loadmaster shoved the last stormtrooper up the ramp and followed along behind. He reached the top of the ramp and hit the 'seal' button as Coalition troops, Stormtroopers and Naval troopers, even Wei with the M90 mounted at his hatch, layed down cover fire. The dropship shuddered as the engines kicked on and it began to lift even before the ramp was fully sealed.

With some relish, the haggered coalition troops saged against walls, laid down on the floor and even on the tanks. None of them wanted to think about what was coming next...

Coruscant.

* * *

**Sentient Coalition High Command, Filmar IV,**

**Sentient Coalition Unified Armies Office,**

**June 20th, 2554, 0800 UST**

"So you can see that the attrition rates on Tatooine prove that the SC-MA1 Main Battle Tank is an effective countermeasure to the Covenant Wraith tank and Scarab. Production numbers can easily replace the losses we sustained and be have enough capacity to begin fully outfiting at least four full army groups with them. M21 gauss rifle production is high and we're in the process of equiping many front line units with them instead of their basic weapons." General Harris said. Harris had been given the daunting task of comdining the industrial might of the Coalition and putting it towards the war effort. Even with the hundreds of thousands of industrialized worlds available, many were incapable of producing the high tech weapons that the Coalition was designing. But they could produce munitions and their own gear.

Across the Coalition strict rationing and a massive civilian effort was being put into place to equip and outfit the millions of soldiers that were joining the Coalition armies each day. Uniforms, non-combat gear, even rations and food had to be mass produced and distributed. If the axiom that 'Rookies study tactics, experts study logistics' was true, then General Harris was the most experianced soldier in the whole of the Coalition army.

"How well supplied is the defense of Coruscant?" Complin asked looking at the wall display in his office. Now instead of the massive universe holo, it displayed a visual of the planet Coruscant and it's defenses.

"The four army groups make up 16 divisions, each equipped with full combat loads and are reinforced for a months worth of constant, high intensity combat. Each platoon has nearly 90 tons worth of supplies available to it for the coming invasion. As for the ten New Republic Army groups present, the fifteen Imperial Army groups and nine Stormtrooper legions, they have acess to the supplies available on world. If they are besieged, then the defenders could last for over a year on the planetary stocks. Although the civilian population would be hard pressed. They could survive for that long, but it would not be pretty." Harris said.

"And the evacuation of the civilians?" Complin asked looking back at the White haired general sitting across from him.

"Impossible sir. Those that can leave have, but the population of Coruscant is 9 billion, there aren't enough ships in the fleet to get them off, even if we could concentrate them. Unfortunately the civilians are there are stuck for the siege. The troops on the surface are moving them down as far as they can into the undercity for safety, but it's not going to be pretty once the covenant invade the planet." General Milantas said. Milantas was an Imperial General, but from what Complin had heard of him bakc at the Academy on Cardia he was one of the best there was. And right now he was going to be in command of the defense.

"I see. It's unfortunate, but it's the way modern war is. None are spared from it. Are your forces ready General?" Complin asked. Milantas nodded.

"We don't have enough forces to defend the entire planet immedeately, or do effect a completely solid front line given the megalopolis, but we've centered our defences on the Imperial Palace, the Senate building and the Jedi Temple. The triangle filled in with these forces is well set up and our command center is in the Imperial Palace. After the Covenant invade I intend to alter my defenses acordingly. We'll fight hard to hold those three locations, but we'll move out and try to erect a good defensive line against them. It will be pretty damn bloody sir, but we'll hold out." Milantas said.

"Good, General." Complin said.

"Now if you would excuse me sir, I have to return to Coruscant to supervise the final preperations." Milantas said as he stood. Complin nodded and saluted. The Imperial General left the office. Harris also stood and saluted, knowing that Complin wished to be alone to consider the war.

After the other General left, Complin stood and moved over to the wall display. As he approached it changed to show the main frontline that stretched across the galaxy. Anjek's plan to disrupt the Covenant assault wasn't working the Guerilla attacks and convoy raiding wasn't slowing the lead Covenant elements at all. It was as though the Covenant generals were completely incapable of realizing the impact that would come when they tried to wage a protracted campaign against heavily defended worlds. The Covenant had no strategic sense, no grasp of logistics. That was a weakness that the Coalition was trying to exploit.

But now, just down the hall, Anjek was considering targets. Not targets for Chemical and Biological weapons. Targets for superweapons.

The Coalition was going to go into the buisness of planet killing.

* * *

**Filmar IV, Sentient Coalition High Command,**

**Office of the Unified Commander,**

**June 21st 2554, 1800 Hours UST,**

Anjek had sifted through the multitude of target locations and dispersal plans that the newly formed Super Weapons Command had created and drawn up. He'd looked at all the archive fotage and technical reports of the Sun Crushers, Nova Bombs, Genesis Weapons, Galaxy Gun rounds and other Superweapons that the Coalition had available. He'd read the inteligence breifings and data that he had available. He'd made his desicions. A wide reaching series of strikes on industrial and agricultural worlds. In conjunction with the massively up-scaled efforts of Operation _Medusa Touch _the desired outcome would be to starve the lead Covenant elements of their supply network and force a withdrawl.

Anjek was unwilling to strike at pure population or government centers of the Covenant Hegemony, and his advisors agreed. Such steps had the dangerous potential of griding the Covenant against any kind of negotiated peace or willing surrender. The political leadership had also forbid such actions and had deliberately specified that the Coalition military targets and industrial centers only. Resorting to terror bombing of Covenant worlds was ordered to be a last resort only, and even then it was to be considered a 'dying blow' that would be leveled against the enemy.

The current plan called for attacks on a large scale against over 500 star systems in Covenant control. Resource and factory worlds, most of these attacks would be large scale system strikes with Nova Bomb torpedoes and Supernova torpedoes. A few worlds would be hit with Genesis weapons and Galaxygun warheads. All and all nearly a twenty thousand worlds would be completely annihilated and over a trillion beings would be killed. It would be a vicious blow to the Covenant, just the latest in a long line of blows that had been thought of as being the last step before bringing the Covenant assault to a halt. Anjek knew that this would be the first use of yet another weapon that would become common place. Already Chemical and Biological weapons were being used more and more frequently in ground fighting to gain an advantage against the overwhelming numerical odds that the Covenant had begun to use against the superior technology of the Coalition.

Anjek pulled a writing stylus from it's holder and hand wrote a message on flimsplast. He sealed it and called for his aid. The Colonel entered his office and retrived the message. He saluted and carried it off to the comms center where the orders would be sent out to units across the universe. It was a very simple message, and very succinct.

_To: All Coalition Superweapons armed units_

_From: Unified Commander Kurrs Anjek_

_All units are instructed to begin implimentation of OP-Plan Mongol. May our gods forgive us.

* * *

_

**Far Orbit, Star Designated AAL2232,**

**Covenant Owned Starsystem, Target # 435,**

**June 23rd, 2554, 0900 Hours UST**

The pilot was alone on this run. None of his squadron was with him. The weapons that he carried were lethal enough for only one missle to kill a solar system. The other bombers were set to hit other planets, destroy other worlds with their ordinace. The pilot looked at the chrono and saw that it was time to launch his missile.

His hand hesitated over the firing stud. He didn't want to do this, he didn't want to murder fifty billion beings with a single shot.

"You are ordered to fire." A voice said from behind him. The SCPKF observer was sitting in the weapons officer seat. The duty of the Sentient Coalition Peace Keeping Forces officer was simple, ensure weapons launch, no matter what.

"No." The pilot said simply. And it was the last thing that he ever said. With complete impassion the SCPKF trooper drew his sidearm and fired a single blaster bolt through the pilot's flight helmet. Without thought the trooper entered in the weapons fire over-ride and launched the Suprenova Torpedo into the heart of the star. Then he merely sat back and waited for death, he had only been there to ensure that the weapon was fired, he hadn't been trained to retrive the bomber.

So when the star went nova a few minutes later he sat there and was incinerated a few seconds before the other billions of beings that he had killed.

* * *

**Coalition;**

Military Personnel KIA 99,540,789,547

Military Personnel WIA 392,000,783,956

Civilians KIA 203,457,961,745

Starships Destroyed in action 32,154

Worlds Lost 40,394

**Covenant;**

Military Personel KIA 904,687,777,001

Military Personel WIA 102,100,000,024

Civilians KIA 1,000,984,157,012

Starships Destroyed in action 65,351

Worlds Lost 22,445

* * *

Up next; Chapter 10: Seige of Coruscant.

Countless armies have fought over Coruscant througout the millenia, but none have ever taken it easily, and for the Covenant their campaign shall find alleys filled with death and streets caked in blood as they struggle to take the megalopolis of Coruscant. But even as this struggle continues onward, darker forces begin to take shape, the new leaders of the Covenant Armies begin to appear, and a bloody internal struggle for dominance begins...the Elites and Brutes will either stand aside, or be brushed aside. As near outright civil war begins among the Covenant, the Sentient Coalition must begin to battle it's own internal foes and strife...the internal strains placed on so many different cultures and worlds working together could become an even greater threat than the Covenant Hegemony.


	12. Chpater 10: The Siege of Coruscant

Asking for a roll call here of all the writers that are doing FFH spin-offs and sub stories or if you wanted to, Email me at also, I believe that two people had FFH story ideas that they wanted to do, could you please re-send them, I'm sorry I missed getting back to you and I would like to read them and see how good they are.

I was thinking of making a web-site for FFH with the story along with information about the Coalition, the Covenant, and the Horde, complete with maps, technical info and such, as a 'Sourcebook' for those of you want to write in the FFH universe. Any 'yea' or 'nea' comments on that idea would be appreciated. As PMs or in the reviews.

* * *

Chapter 10:_ The Siege of Coruscant_

"It was like the act of a pagan God, _**a pretty fuck'in angry pagan God!"** _

-The verbatim after action report by Wing Commander J-L'anaa'tt'a after Supernova Torpedo induced destruction of a Covenant star system.

"When the cloud hit them...it kind of looked like someone had taken a broom and had swept across them...none of them remained standing, and for a few moments they writhed on the ground...Then it went still...as still as death..."

-Sergeant Jamie Johansen, Sentient Coalition Peacekeeping Forces 153rd Division, commenting on use of a combination of VX and Sarin against a Covenant marching column.

"Ebola Motaba is an efficient killer...although very messy, when we reconed the city a week after it swept through, it looked like someone had begun to repaint the buildings with blood. From what we could see, in places it had run through the streets like a heavy rain fall...it was something that a horror writer could describe properly, if he had a particularly sick mind..."

-Spartan 1325 - Kirk, Bio-Chemist Trained Spartan sent on a reconnaissance mission to investigate the after effects of an Ebola release on a Covenant industrial city.

"Killed some Covenant."

-Complete debriefing report by Spartan-Sniper 1980 - Greg, after his 3 week participation in the Battle of Brentaal, estimated casualties of the siege exceed the 50,000,000 mark.

"It...it was a demon...the monster simply shrugged off our fire for the longest time...and even after we took it down, there were more! Jumping through the air, their three foot long claws slicing through armor and flesh with impunity. I saw a Brute cleaved in half, _in half! _And they just kept coming at us!"

-Unidentified Elite, interrogation after capture believed to be testimony of an attack by a series of Umbrella designed Bio-Weapons, code named 'Bandersnatches'

"From what we know about the Covenant Paladins, the are not vengeful, angry creatures, quite the contrary. They've shown remarkable compassion and tolerance for non-combatants, and even prisoners. There have been many reports of POW's being captured, merely because a Paladin made it clear that they were to be treated humanely and captured. But this kindness does not extend to the NEXTGen Spartans. They seem to have an intense loathing for us in any form..."

-Excerpt from a report on the Covenant Paladin Warriors from Spartan - Alchemist 9923 - Enrique

* * *

**Current Casualty Levels as of July 1st 2554:**

**Coalition;**

Military Personnel KIA 99,540,789,547

Military Personnel WIA 392,000,783,956

Civilians KIA 203,457,961,745

Starships Destroyed in action 32,154

Worlds Lost 40,394

**Covenant;**

Military Personnel KIA 904,687,777,001

Military Personnel WIA 102,100,000,024

Civilians KIA 1,000,984,157,012

Starships Destroyed in action 65,351

Worlds Lost 22,445

* * *

**Covenant Battleship _Divine Strength_,**

**Ten light Years from Coruscant,**

**July 2nd, 2554, 0900 UST**

The new Battleship class was a behemoth amongst the Covenant armadas. A third the length of an Imperial Super Star Destroyer made it the largest ship class in the fleet. Armed with hundreds of plasma turrets, turbolasers and a plethora of other weapons, these ships were massive weapons of war. Filled with nearly a quarter of a million crew, fighter and shuttle pilots it was it's own metropolis. Although no match for an Imperial Super Star Destroyer, Human Alliance Battleship, or United Stellar States Battleship, it was more than a match for nearly everything else that the Coalition possessed. The raw firepower of a Covenant battleship was said to possess enough firepower to reduce an entire world to cinders.

Although with the Covenant this was the norm for their vessels.

The _Divine Strength_ was the flagship of the vast armada of warships that had it's sights set on Coruscant. The legions of Covenant soldiers and the allied fleets that were with it was enough to overwhelm any resistance that stood in it's way. All this because the Prophets had ordered a campaign of conquest rather than extermination against the Coalition.

Armada Commander Ullt'Rittalamant did not care one way or the other of the reasons the prophets ordered the conquest of the Coalition rather than it's destruction by plasma bombardment. He was merely there to follow orders to the best of his abilities. And follow them he would, landing waves of infantry and armor after his armada had swept the Coalition defenders from space and blockaded the planet. It would be a brutal battle, but an easy victory.

_'Even with these Paladin nurse maids.' _Ullt thought to himself looking at the silver robed forms standing along the far wall of the command deck. He did not have much faith in the need for the presence of the Edenganer, but the Prophets had ordered that they be present in every Covenant warship and armada, and to be present in every ground unit from division up.

Their presence was even more worry-some than that of the Brutes which had begun to vie for the places of command and power held by the elites. They merely stood and watched, but for reasons that no Elite could understand, some thought they were turning into the watching eyes of the Elites, others believed they were going to make their own bid for power. But there was something that every elite could agree on, their presence was not a good sign.

The Prophets were losing faith in the Elites to fight and win the war properly.

Ullt stood at the elevated command platform and looked at the symbols that represented the whole of the fleet. Even with the extremely diverse nature of the fleet, they moved with purpose and were well co-coordinated. If not out of unity and organization then out of fear. Ever since the Protoss revolt the Prophets had been much harsher on the subjugated races that were permitted to keep their own sentience. Especially with the Tau mutiny and the ever growing numbers of conscript forces being brought into the war, the conquered races were becoming more of a leadership caste of the Covenant armies, overseen by the 'original' members of the Covenant. And with the responsibilities that they were having thrust upon them, so too were the ever increasing scrutiny with which they were observed.

"Armada Commander." Ullt heard from behind him. The Elite snarled as he turned around to face the interruption.

"Calm yourself Commander, otherwise these orders shall enrage you even more." The red robed paladin said calmly, he had appeared from nowhere, and stood amongst the other Edenganer as though he had always been there...and given the abilities of the Edgenganer, he may very well have been. For a moment the Elite felt his anger subside, but he became enraged again when he realized he was being manipulated.

"Stop your mind tricks Paladin. What orders do you speak of?" Ullt said, his voice little more than a growl. All around the bridge the Elites ceased their work and observed the exchange. One did not have to be a force user or a psi to sense that the Armada Commander's temper was growing every second he was in the presence of the Paladins. There were five Paladins standing together, four silver robed warriors stood around the fifth crimson armored Edenganer.

There were twenty Elites in the room, and thirty Brutes ready and waiting in case an alarm was sounded from the Bridge.

The Armada Commander stood silent, his gaze into the deep lifeless eyes of the crimson armored Paladin was one of the Clan of Divine Guidance, the other four were of the Clan Smiters of Evil. Even with thirty Brutes, and twenty Elites...and more security teams that only he knew of that could respond...the Armada commander was not confident of his chances in a fight.

"Do not dare to raise your weapons against me, elite." The red robed Paladin said with menace. Even as the words left the alien's mouth, Ullt could feel the soft, tingling fingers of the Paladin's psi abilities moving through his mind.

"You rise above your station paladin. Be-gone from my mind at once...otherwise I shall have your body strung from the bow of the ship as a trophy and your head kept in my chambers for amusement!" Ullt growled. The member of the Clan of Divine Guidance blinked his massive black eyes and flicked his narrow, forked tongue along his needle sharp teeth, almost as though he were taken aback by the statement made. He then cocked his head to one side and glanced back to one of the silver robed Edenganer, a much more poignant action than was necessary for a paladin to make...it had been done for the observers of this duel between commanders.

"I am afraid that you delude yourself Ullt'Rittalamant. It is you who have risen far above a station that was never yours to possess." The red robed paladin said. He held his free hand back and grasped a small dock-reader handed to him by the silver armored paladin behind him. Without thought or concern he released the grasp on his _Norifostraeh _staff and it slowly rose into the air and hung, suspended only by the force of the paladin's mind, at waist level. The member of the Clan of Divine Guidance then opened the docu-reader. The two panels slid apart, and between them a holo with the text appeared for him. The paladin read aloud as the four silver robed members of Clan Smiters of Evil dropped to their knees and bowed their heads in reverence.

"By order of the Prophet of the Divine Crusade. I, Shantalllini, member of the Clan of Divine Guidance of the Edenganer Paladins, Holy instrument of the Divine Prophets and servant protector of the Children of the Covenant...have been hereby ordered to take full command of the Grand Cleansing Armada that has been ordered to invade and conquer the planet known as Coruscant. The task which has been vested to my abilities has been placed their due to the growing lack of ability for the Elites...guardians and servants of the Prophets...to carry out the divine tasks that have been given to them. In keeping with this order given to me by the Prophet of the Divine Crusade, I have hereby been tasked with the duty to assume command and to place any Elite, Brute, Grunt, Jackal, Hunter, Servant Race, or Conscript that resists this holy order under sentence of summary execution...for the crime of Heresy and Treason against both the Holy Prophets, and for placing the Great Journey in jeopardy with their lack of faith and loyalty."

The words rang loudly in the large chamber. The paladin had enhanced his voice and made it deafening in the armored command center, although it had not been needed, all eyes had been watching him and waiting to see where the confrontation would go...now it had taken a dramatic step in an extremely dangerous direction.

The red robed Paladin - Shantalllini - walked forward with the docu-reader in hand. As he walked, the _Norifostraeh_ staff floated with him, but his guard of the four silver robed paladins remained kneeling, their reverence for the Prophets absolute. As Shantalllini walked, the eyes of every Elite followed him...the rage and fury within the room was palpable. Undaunted...and seemingly unconcerned...the paladin walked up the ramp to stand directly in front of the Armada Commander. With a talloned hand he gave the docu-reader to the speechless elite and turned, walking out of the knot of ten Elites standing on the elevated command platform. Their hands moved imperceptibly towards their weapons.

"I deny the validity of these orders. Such an act would never be undertaken by the Prophets, their faith in us is absolute." Ullt said.

The other elites glanced at their commander, and as one the members of the Clan Smiters of Evil raised their heads and looked at Shantalllini.

"Kill them." Ullt snarled. Both sides moved at once. The elites drew plasma rifles and energy swords, bringing them to bear on the Paladins. The silver robed paladins merely stood and grasped their _Norifostraeh_ with both hands. It was the red robed member of the Clan of Divine Guidance that moved in response. His black clawed hand grabbed his staff from the air and held it high, like a torch. As he did so, a strange energy seemed to radiate from him, red tendrils of energy making his red cloak flail widely and fully showing the intricately designed armor that he wore.

Made from _Jadenande _stone that the Precipice of Galaxies end had been carved from made it nearly indestructible from physical force, alloyed with black _Olliantgrand_ ore made it impervious to all but the most powerful energy, it had been colored red and carefully engraved and adorned with ancient runes and oaths that completely covered the surface of the armor. Deep red _Rinandanlan _jems also glistened on the surface of the plate armor, glowing from within, lit by arcane energies.

Such a sight in combat would inspire fear in the eyes of any warrior, and the Elites were no different. Seeing this spectacle and awesome display of force made them back down and lower their weapons...all but one...Ullt.

"Cowards. I shall deal with this scum myself." The Armada Commander said, drawing his own energy sword, pride had over-ridden sense. The purple and violet blade flared into existence. He slowly began to stalk towards Shantalllini, ready to eliminate this threat to his command.

"Ullt'Rittalamant, by the divine will of the Holy Prophets, and by order of the Prophet of the Divine Crusade I sentence you to death for Treason, Heresy, and Mutiny. I shall carry out this sentence of execution in the service of the Holy Prophets and in protection of the Children of the Covenant." Shantalllini said...his black and seemingly empty eyes had begun to glow faintly. All around him the air seemed to come alive with the sinews of some enormous power. Far behind him on the lower level, the four members of the Clan Smiters of Evil had bowed their heads and were reciting an alien and un-intelligible prayer.

Shantalllini raised his free clawed hand and arcs of energy and lightening leapt from it. The alien Paladin's gaze seemed capable of killing, but that was not his only means of carrying out the execution. Ullt hesitated for only a moment, the energy sword in his hand came up and he held it ready in front of him. His muscles tensed, and then he sprang forward through the air, towards the paladin. As he flew through the air, the lightening that was arcing from Shantalllini's claws lit his gold armor, making it glisten and shine as he lunged forward. It was an awe-inspiring spectacle, watching the two alien warriors become locked in combat.

The paladin stood his ground for a moment, and then, almost imperceptibly fast, simply side stepped the deadly energy blade. He brought his staff down on the blade hard, and easily knocked it from Ullt's grasp. As he did so, a loud snap could be heard over the cracks of the energy that Shantalllini contained. The seemingly effortless blow had snapped both the Elites armored forearm section, but also the bones in his forearm. Ullt stumbled as he went past the paladin, and then fell to one knee, grasping his arm in surprise. It was pointless for the Elite to even consider the pain in his arm, because as he knelt, Shantalllini released the built up energy in his claws.

The command center turned as bright a supernova. The energy that Shantalllini had called upon immolated Ullt as he knelt there, vaporizing him in the blink of an eye and leaving nothing behind, not even ash. The other Elites stood in chilled silence, watching the Paladin stand there, not even weakened by such a display of force. The member of the Clan of Divine Guidance walked over to the plasma sword and picked it up. He seemed to consider the weapon for a moment, then deactivated it. He turned and looked at the other elites, meeting their gazes as they stood and stared.

"Do you accept my authority?" Shantalllini asked the command center as a whole.

As one, the Elites knelt and bowed their heads.

"Good, I do not wish to have to execute any other loyal, but foolish warriors." Shantalllini said and looked down at the four members of the Clan Smiters of Evil. Then bowed their heads and held their right arms crossways over their chests in salute, then walked up the ramp and stood, their eyes watching the Elites carefully.

"We have a planet to conquer in the name of the Holy Prophets. Are all ships ready?" Shantalllini asked, taking position where Ullt had stood a few minutes before. The Elites seemed to snap out of a daze and returned to their stations quickly.

"Yes sir. All vessels report ready for FTL jump into the Coruscant system. All ground units also report ready." One of the Elites said.

The red clad Paladin nodded slowly and looked to the massive battle display in front of the command center. All around the battleship, other vessels waited for their commands, sitting in perfect array and precise order.

"All units make the jump and begin engagement of Coalition forces." Shantallini ordered.

* * *

**Coalition Command Center,**

**Imperial Palace, Coruscant,**

**July 2nd, 2554, 0905 UST**

Deep within the halls and passages of the Imperial Palace, General Milantas watched on a dozen different holos in the command center the Covenant armada drop from FTL and appear before the defenders of Coruscant. They dropped from FTL en-masse and their lines were in perfect battle formation. Normal fleets usually had to re-form their lines after a long jump, or micro-jump into a system...something that was extremely dangerous and even then was not guaranteed to give an optimal deployment.

But right now over 50,000 vessels were dropping from FTL into perfect formation around Coruscant for a blockade. From the positioning of the Yevethan ships it was clear that the Covenant had used their own Slip-space drives and Goa'uld Hyperdrives to come around on the other side of the planet since the Yevethans were unable to jump through a planet. On all sides the Covenant horde lay just outside the range for the Golan III defense platforms to fire on them in the few moments between the power-down from FTL and the switching over to combat stations. It was perfect...inhumanly so. As Milantas watched the armada engaged the planetary defenses on all sides, the Golan III's opened fire with Turbolasers, Ion Cannons and Proton Torpedoes, filling space with a spectacular display of raw firepower. From the planet's surface larger turbolaser and Ion cannon emplacements opened fire, along with ground launched proton torpedoes, and Concussion missiles from RAGOC launchers.

The volume of force and fire being thrown into orbit was astonishing. On the tactical displays, wings of fighters lifted skyward, New Republic X, B, K, and E wings all flying towards the Covenant, alongside flights of Imperial Tie Defenders, Tie Advanced fighters, Missile Boats, and Assault Gunboats. Even freelance freighter pilots and mercenaries were lifting off, more than likely trying to break the Covenant Blockade and flee what they thought was a dying planet, but they would do their own fighting before they could flee.

"General, the Covenant forces are launching fighters...and drop ships. They're trying to make planetfall sir." One of the officers in the command center said. Militans looked at the re-entry paths and noted what the Covenant were trying to do.

"So I see Colonel. They're trying to knock out the shield generators before they make a large scale invasion. Plus they probably want to make it easier to knock out some of the Golan III's to open an invasion corridor to the surface." Miltians said. The Invasion of Coruscant had been a very well practiced exercise both when he was in the academy and in the recent years before the Yuhuzzan Vong invasion. The Empire was getting restless, and with the huge areas of Chiss space the Grand Moffs were getting ideas about trying to rebuild what had been lost. Every possible contingency had been analyzed, and they ran the gambit from the insane to the impossible. But every single one needed the same thing to happen.

The planetary shields had to come down.

Originally, when the rebels had invaded, they'd sent in Rogue Squadron to take down the shields so that the invasion could succeed, and so the planet could be held against counter attack. But with the number of ships available to the Covenant, they had no reason to fear a counter attack.

Then why were they moving ground troops in to take the shield generators?

Milantas looked at the numbers of ships moving towards the generators and realized that there weren't enough to carry even half the number of troops needed to take the generators...

"Those aren't troop ships, those are spotters." Militantas said. The 'drop ships' had mostly been ignored by the Golan III's since they were more worried about the capital ships bearing down on them, but it was too late. All around the perimeter Covenant ships were darting through the Golan III perimeter and heading straight towards the approximate locations of the shield generators. The massive number of ships was more than the Golan platforms could handle, and the Covenant were slipping through, seemingly content to take the losses to take down the shield generators.

Clearly, those drop ships had damn good sensors as well. The Covenant ships were laying down a withering barrage across the surface of the planetary shields, right at the key energy nexus over each of the planetary shield generators. The Shields could withstand a massive amount of punishment, but such a concentrated barrage directly over the generators was not something that a planetary shield could deal with.

"Generator plants are all reporting power fluctuations and overloads!" One of the officers said in a panic. Milantas rolled his eyes and sighed. If the planetary shields were going to stop everything every time then there was no need for any kind of defenses on the planet. It had been proven countless times during the Civil war that planetary shields were a temporary defense, and a short lived one at that.

"Covenant ships are headed through the Golan perimeter on all sides!" The officer shouted in a panic.

"Lieutenant, I don't need a panic in my command center. Either calm down or get out." Milantas growled, then turned his attention to the Covenant forces punching through the Golan III perimeter. A number of Covenant ships were being taken down, but the ability of both Goa'uld Motherships and Covenant vessels to operate in the atmosphere made them perfect as drop ships. The Golan's couldn't put out enough fire to stop all of them, and once they made it to the planet, there was little that could be done to quickly counter them. Covenant troops were making landfall across the surface.

Now it was in the hands of the soldiers on the ground.

* * *

**Covenant Battleship _Divine Strength_**,

**Outside Perimeter Blockade of Coruscant**

**July 2nd 2554, 0920 Hours, UST**

Shantalllini watched on the main display screens as the forces around the planet systematically wiped the defenders from space. The stationary defense platforms around Coruscant had been a significant annoyance, they were heavily armed and armored, but immobile. Once they'd been cleared, corridors were safe for more ships to head to the surface. The Paladin had given the order for the Yevethan thrust ships and Star Destroyers to focus on eliminating the threats posed by both the Coalition's defense platforms and their pitiful fighters. Even though the firepower that the puny craft possessed was enough to damage a starship, they were an annoyance, nothing more.

The Paladin was content with the plan that his Elite predecessor had formulated, but unfortunately the Armada Master had neglected the intrinsic objective of the Invasion of Coruscant was one of political and propaganda means. With the rise of the Edeanganer into the roles of planers and strategists, great insights into the Coalition and it's inherent weaknesses were gained, and those could be exploited. Right now, the objective was simple, take a planet of over 900 Billion inhabitants intact, and begin a propaganda war against the Coalition. The Edeanganer believed that with the varied groups that made up the Coalition, internal strife could work well towards destroying them.

"Paladin...Our forces have begun to make planet fall." One of the elites said.

"Good." Shantalllini said as he watched the main screen. A number of symbols for landed starships and disembarkation units had begun to surround the rough triangle that was formed by the Imperial Palace, Senate and Jedi temple. All was progressing much faster than initially anticipated...could the Coalition dogs have neglected the defense of this planet?

No...something else was afoot. Orbital sensors were being disrupted by the concentrations of metal and sheer amount of urban development on the planet, there was no way to scan the planet and find where the defenders were.

"Have the closest units prepare for an assault on the Jedi Temple, recon in force before the main elements attack. Let us see what these vermin have planned for their defenses."

"At your command Paladin." An Elite responded.

"And send some of the new mobile suits for support."

"As you wish."

* * *

**Residential Block 88920-33A,**

**Twenty Miles Southwest of Jedi Temple,**

**July 2nd 2554, 0930 Hours, UST**

"Range?" A voice called out softly in the darkness.

"Two hundred meters." Another responded. It was supposedly daylight on this area of the planet, but that didn't matter much when you were closer to the ground that open surface time of day didn't matter much.

"Everyone in position Sergeant?" The original voice asked.

"Yessir." The second replied.

A single window allowed light into the room, and a black armored form cut across it and gazed down into the highway that ran through the urban landscape. It was an eight lane wide concourse, and it was clear straight up for nearly a mile before the 'surface'. The black armored trooper looked out the window, then ducked back under cover. Instead, the trooper raised his M21 and pointed the weapon out the window, remaining in cover.

"Lizards moving in column with Tanks and APC's." The trooper said. He centered the targeting halo on the lead command track. A small comm-dish was mounted behind the turret of the APC and several brilliant designs signified the presence of the commander. The armor's AI unit translated the symbols and identified the passenger as a general and his staff.

"Target that command track first." The Platoon Lieutenant said, patching into the troopers suit infolink remotely.

"Yes sir." The trooper replied. All throughout the forty-two trooper platoon the LT was making quick targeting decisions, and setting up the optimal kill zone for the entire unit. All that was left was to wait for them to march into it.

Tefflak marched, every step he took made him feel as though he were walking deeper and deeper into the gullet of some immense predator that wished to devour him. He swept the muzzle of his plasma rifle back and forth, his eye turrets trying to watch every direction at once. He knew that he was being watched, and if he was being watched there was the ever present risk of being shot...

Tefflak had seen much in the many years he'd been a soldier, first fighting on Tostev III against the Tostevites, then after the loss of Home and the defeat of the Race by the Covenant, he had fought on hundreds of different worlds. Each one as alien as Tostev III, with it's freezing climate, massive surface water deposits and even water falling from the sky. He'd fought on planets made entirely of ice, planets filled with strange creatures and aliens, planets that were covered from horizon to horizon in dense, massive forests...but this was the first time he had fought on a planet that was nothing but one immense city.

And he did not like it. None of the Infantrymales in the squad liked it.

"Advance in skirmish line...our objective is designated Jedi Temple, with luck we should be there by nightfall." The Commander's voice hissed over his radio.

"It shall be done." Tefflak hissed in response and moved forward in a line with the other males. Behind them, Landcruisers and APC's moved along, their cannons slowly shifting from side to side, tracking for targets.

Tefflak looked up into the hundreds of windows that he could see, and knew that there were probably thousands that he couldn't. In each one a sniper could be waiting for his shot...cross hairs laying over his head...finger tightening on the trigger... Tefflak's eye turrets settled on one window, a small flash of motion was seen, just before a weapon protruded from the window, he'd seen it before and knew it well, an M21 Gauss Rifle, the standard weapon of the Coalition.

"Enemy!" Tefflak hissed, raising his weapon and opening fire.

Then all hell broke loose...

* * *

It was a 720 degree ambush. There was no hiding, gauss fire fell upon the marching lizards from every direction at once. In-front and behind, above and below, left and right. Snipers fired at the alien troops from high above, and from drains in the street. Grenades were tossed at the backs of the lizards as they marched by soldiers that popped up from manholes. Heavy M90's slashed into the vulnerable flanks of the lizard troops from store fronts as missiles and grav-propelled grenades slammed into APC's and Landcruisers.

Even with the new body armor that the Covenant had issued to the Lizard infantry, it was still slaughter. Skittering forms drooped to the ground, explosive gauss needles ripping them apart in showers of blood. Armor piercing needles and shaped charge grenades ripped through the thin skinned APC's and left burring wrecks littering the highway. Tanks tried to push forward through the wrecks, smashing aside ruined vehicles and trying to provide covering fire, but they were met with hypervelocity armor piercing grenades and precision sniper fire from S-M21 Heavy Sniper rifles.

In a few seconds the street had gone from being mostly empty, to becoming a clogged mass of burning vehicles and dead bodies.

* * *

"Cover fire! COVER FIRE!" Tefflak screeched through his comm unit. He crouched down behind the smoldering remains of what had been just moments ago, the unit commander's APC. He fired his Plasma rifle up towards the windows that had spewed death down on the column. He paused and reloaded as his weapon emptied. All around him other infantrymales were firing, and more and more were dying to the inRacely accuracy of the Coalition troops.

"We have to withdrawal!" One of the other males shouted, his own weapon up and firing. Beside Tefflak two males set up a small plasma cannon and were blazing away, sending long streams of fire up at the ambushers.

"No! We hold here for reinforcements!" Tefflak replied, again reloading his weapon. He drew a grenade from his armor, primed it and then threw it into a window that a dozen gauss rounds had erupted from. The window exploded out and sent a form in black armor tumbling down onto the street. It started to get up, but the fire from four infantry males combined on it and made sure that the ambusher would not rise again.

Tefflak raised his weapon again and redirected his fire at a new threat. Charging infantry troops, wearing mottled black-white-gray armor and helmets. Clearly these were the native troops, the 'New Republic' forces on the planet. They moved with practiced organization and were not foolish enough to make a wave assault into the Race forces, but they were still advancing and it was no easy task.

"Ground troops!" Tefflak hissed and started directing his fire at the infantry that was trying to dislodge them from their crude barricades. Plasma rifle fire shifted from trying to deal with the snipers to the much more impending threat of an infantry assault. An average human towered over even the largest infantrymale. But with plasma rifles at range, they were much stronger, but if those humans managed to close in and start fighting with pointblank blaster fire, grenades and bayonets, they would be more than a match for the males trying to hold their ground.

The infantrymales fired, leveling the first ranks of troops with deadly efficiency. But these enemy troops were not an undisciplined rabble, they were hardened veterans, members of the Coruscant Defense Force. Even as the first troops fell, many of their number crouched and began to return fire with grim precision. Light Repeaters, Firelance blaster rifles, and even grenade and rocket launchers opened fire, raking the Lizard defenders with a vicious barrage of fire. Among the high explosive and shrapnel grenades that landed among Tefflak's troops, smoke grenades fell. The fact that they were just smoke was no small relief to the Infantrymale commander, since the Coalition had begun to make very liberal use of Chemical weapons when they fought.

"Keep shooting!" Tefflak hissed, letting burst after burst of fire into the white smoke. The return fire lit the white smoke an eerie red as the enemy charged forward. The white cloud was rolling forward, overtaking the burning landcruisers and APC's, shrouding the infantrymales in a blanket of white fog. Tefflak kept firing as did the rest of his unit. Reinforcements were flowing into his lines and they had a very good chance of holding their position, and possibly counter-attacking.

A small black sphere materialized from the white fog and clattered to his feet, without thought, Tefflak kicked out his foot and send the sphere arching back into the fog. He ducked as a blossom of orange and yellow flared into life, and shrapnel peppered the APC he was taking cover behind. Tefflak popped back up and fired at a shape that had emerged from the smoke, it was larger than a male so it had to be a big ugly. He fired and the upper body of the form vaporized as the blue projectiles connected. But even as he fired, two more forms emerged, sending crimson blaster bolts flaring against his cover. Tefflak ducked down, but thrust the muzzle of his rifle over the APC edge and fired wildly. If he could pin them, he could get back up and fire.

Another grenade fell down onto the ground in front of his snout, he grabbed it and wound back his arm to throw the grenade back at the big uglies that had thrown it. But just as he had brought his arm back far enough, it detonated. And the only worldly remains of Infantrymale Tefflak, was a badly mangled plasma rifle and a few pieces of body armor.

* * *

"Looks like they're doing it!" One of the troopers shouted. The Platoon LT only nodded as he fired his M21 down into the cloud of smoke the New Republic troops had used to cover their advance. It was effective against the lizards because they didn't have personal thermal or doppler radar units, the Coalition troopers could see through it fine.

"Heads up...my sensors show something big coming." One of the men said.

"Where from?" The Lt asked.

"Up! My god...mobile suits..." The trooper said.

"_What?_"

And just then, the first form of a Zaku II dropped down onto the street among the New Republic troops and lizards. The massive mobile suit crushed APC's and Landcruisers, along with lizards and NR infantry.

"Allah..." Someone murmured.

It wasn't a Zeon Zaku II...not exactly. It looked a lot like one, but instead of green, it was the purple-red of Covenant Alloy. The weapon it carried wasn't a 90mm or even a 100mm machine cannon. It was about the same size, but instead of a drum magazine it had a large cylinder on the end, along with others mounted on the waist of the machine. The glowing sensor eye in the center of the MS's head pivoted around and then the entire head followed suit...focusing in on the M90 across the way.

From either side of the Covenant MS's head erupted plasma fire, mixed with fuel rod cannon fire. The troops didn't have time to retreat, they were eradicated in moments. As the MS stopped firing, the entire facade of the building it had shot at began to crack and then collapse down, taking out more troops. The MS's head turned again, focusing in on another group of soldiers. This time, instead of firing, it simply reached out a massive hand and smashed it into the building, pulverizing the soldiers beneath it's multi-ton appendage.

"Withdrawal! WITHRDAWL NOW!" The Lt screamed, to both his troops and the New Republic infantry on the road...what was left of them.

* * *

Tikrit'allot sat within the cockpit of the mobile suit worked the controls of his _Goliath_ armor with practiced ease. He had been training in simulators for some time, and had a field exercise under his belt. His 'squadron' was one of the first of it's kind in the Hegemony. The raid on the Human space colony had produced much information. Along with information from other sources, the _Goliath_ had been the result of all the technology that the hegemony had acquired. Superficially much like the human Zaku II...but other than that it was fairly different. Plasma generators and extremely effective shielding were a few of the notable differences. From what the engineers had told him, it was almost a completely different weapon than it's human 'inspiration'. 'Allot had ignored much of the long explanation of how it was different...all he cared about was whether it was better than the human equivalent, and yes it was.

'Allot reached out with one of the MS's massive hands and crushed a clot of enemy troops with it. He smiled as he worked the controls. It was something a bit more difficult to control than a Banshee or Wraith, but it was worth the added aggravation of having to control such a large construct...the main plasma cannon alone was far more powerful than anything the older Wraith Tanks could boast, it was even more powerful than the improved plasma cannon that had been mounted on many of the tanks.

But this...this was like being a god! The ability to simply crush enemy troops and even vehicles beneath the feet of this massive mobile suit...it was like being a God, it really was.

'Allot wished he could pit his machine against some of the other Mobile suits that the Coalition had. While the forces of Zeon, Orb, and the Earth Force Regulars had Mobile suits, the _Goliath_ armor class was more than enough to deal with them...no, he wanted a chance to fight Human Alliance Battleoids, or United Stellar States mobile suits, either the Aerospace Forces _Richtoffen_ class, or their Marine _Tripoli_ pattern Mobile Suits. Those were big game...what he was fighting now were insects. The elite reached out and smacked the Mobile suit's mighty fist into another building, crumbling part of it and reducing the enemy troops to paste.

"Squadron leader, this is the Detachment commander." A voice said over the comm system. 'Allot had become quite good at all the multi-tasking needed to pilot the _Goliath_ effectively, he switched channels easily.

"Yes sir?"

"Reinforcements are coming up, we are to press forward and smash our way to the Jedi Temple. Then assault forces shall take the building while your forces erect a perimeter. You shall garner much glory in your first battle Squadron Leader." The Detachment Commander said. 'Allot smiled, creating Mobile suits had been a gamble that had so far, not paid off. But now, they seemed to be making their creation worthwhile.

"Yes sir. We shall eradicate these 'Jedi' quickly and take control of their temple." 'Allot said and began to drive his Mobile suit forward, followed by other Elites in their own suits, and further behind, marching ranks of Jaffa and more Lizards.

Even with the failure of the first assault there would be a victory before the day was through.

* * *

**Covenant Battleship _Divine Strength_**,

**Outside Perimeter Blockade of Coruscant**

**July 2nd 2554, 1300 Hours, UST**

"Paladin, our forces will reach the Jedi Temple within the hour. And the Paladin you sent to lead them has just arrived." One of the Elites said. Shantalllini nodded and looked at the massive holo display of the planet with his demon-like eyes. His gaze seemed to be so obsessed with the display that he had shut out the outside world.

"These humans are putting up far less resistance than I expected..." Shantalllini said.

"Perhaps they fear our mighty armies?" The Elite said.

Shantalllini said nothing and continued to watch the display.

"I think not Commander." He said quietly. The Elite looked surprised at the thought.

"But Paladin, aside from weak, almost non-existent ambushes, the enemy has hardly seen any kind of combat against our troops...surely this has to mean fear?" The Elite said.

"How many times have humans or other Aliens shown fear when it came to defending their home-world? No...they show the exact opposite, courage, and brutality in combat. No...this is something else...they're planning something. How much of the surface do we control?" Shantalllini asked unessicarily. The tactical display showed it very clearly, the blue that represented Coalition terrain was few and shrinking beneath the might of the troops landing on the surface.

"More than half, more than the Coalition, Paladin." The Elite said.

Shantalllini scowled...the expression sent the Elite stepping back in fear from the horrific sight.

"This world is a city built over a planet. How many levels do we control? The Coalition is not running in fear, they are hiding beneath the boots of our troops, lying in wait for us..." Shantalllini said.

The Elite looked at the display dumbly, as though he had seen it for the first time.

"Imbecile," Shantalllini snorted and looked at one of the displays, "We have nearly 75 of our current forces on planet. They're waiting for them to all offload before they strike."

"By the Prophets! We must do something!" The Elite said in a panic.

"And what would you have us do 'Kittilit reborn?" Shantalllini said dismissively.

The Elite was silent.

"Retreat off-world? That is what they want us to do. All we can do is unload the troops and prepare for the battle that will come." Shantalllini said as he watched the display.

* * *

**The Jedi Temple,**

**Southwest Perimeter of 'The Triangle',**

**July 2nd 2554, 1800 Hours, UST**

The Jedi temple on Coruscant was a rebuilt monument to the growing glory of the New Republic and the rebuilt Jedi Order. Over 40 Years had past since Anakin Skywalker, reborn as Darth Vader had led Clone Troops through the halls, killing Jedi and Padawan as he did so. Seemingly wiping out the core of the Jedi Order in one brutal stroke. But now, with the ever growing strength of the New Jedi Order, reborn under Luke Skywalker's leadership...and now aided by the seeming legions of newly awakened Cloned Jedi that the Forerunners had kept to fight the Horde, the ranks of the Jedi were stronger than they had been at the height of the Old Republic.

But now another invading army marched towards the Temple...led by a silver garbed Paladin of the Clan Smiters of Evil rather than Anakin Skywalker.

But this time the Jedi were not alone in their battle. With larger numbers, and fully prepared they waited, side by side with troops of the New Republic and Sentient Coalition.

"They'll soon be here." Colonel Alexander said. Colonel Alexander stood as a sharp contrast to the others in the chamber. He wore his Jager-Panzer Command armor, and was fully protected by the black armored shell. The others merely wore simple robes, or at most robe-armor that was more cloth than metal. Alexander couldn't help but scowl behind his tinted faceplate, he was a soldier and put little faith in sorcery and ancient weapons. He'd fought in Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Taiwan, these 'Jedi Knights' were a useless group of mystics and mediators in his opinion.

"I am aware." The General replied. He wore an interesting set of red and black robes and sat cross-legged on the floor, his eyes closed. He had a slight scar over one eye and his black hair was cut close to his head and his small black goatee was neatly trimmed. For some reason he answered to many names. Gando Kast, Revan, or the Prodigal Jedi Knight. He was a clone from the Forerunner Archives and imbued with the memories and 'essence' of his original, who had for all intents he had fought in a great war that had taken place some 50,000 years prior to the fall of the Old Republic...and he was the best tactician that the Jedi possessed.

"All the defenses are in place. As per your orders." The Colonel said. Revan merely nodded slightly. Colonel Alexander scowled and turned. But before he could leave the presence of the silent general, the Jedi spoke.

"Calm your anger Colonel. When the battle comes, the Jedi shall fight, have no doubt of that." Revan said.

Alexander didn't answer, he merely left the room, ignoring the final comment. The blast door closed and two other troopers fell into step behind him as he walked.

"Everything is set?" Alexander asked, walking through the towering halls of the Temple. Alexander couldn't help but feel disgusted at the display. It seemed like every aspect of the temple had been designed to make the residents feel superior and any visitors feel inferior.

He'd never liked Psykers or Mutants, and as far as he was concerned that's little more than what these Jedi were, an aberration from the normal human genome. He'd never been a fan of the mutant X-Men vigilantes back home, and he certainly didn't object to Senator Kensey's early campaign for Mutant registration. Now he was surrounded by hundreds of beings that could be searching his thoughts right now, probing for weakness...for vulnerabilities. He scowled again and wished he had some of the newer 'Merlin' armor that had been developed to resist psi powers, magic users and even force users.

"Yes Colonel." One of the troopers responded. It was difficult to tell from behind the tinted black faceplates who had spoken. Alexander merely nodded, he knew everything was ready, he was looking at the tactical display inside his helmet.

_They are all in position Alex, you could have asked me._ A soft, vaguely male voice said inside Alexander's head. Had he been an unstable man, he would have put the voice down to psychosis, but instead he knew that the voice had a very tangible, if unusual source. His combat assistance

"I told you to cal me Alexander or Colonel." Alexander replied inside his suit, cutting the external voice unit.

_Sorry, _Colonel. The voice replied.

"I know you can tell me, but I do like to make sure that my soldiers are ready." Alexander replied.

_Ah._

"How far are the Covenant?" Alexander asked, and even as he asked an image flooded part of his vision. It barely took a moment for him to recognize the image, the five towering spires of the Jedi temple. The AI quickly highlighted the key locations on the map, the temple, the defensive lines and the Covenant forces as they advanced.

_I believe that the first shots will be traded in...five...four..._ The voice said.

"Shit." Alexander said and broke into a run. His shadows did so as well. The X-Com / Rhineland co-designed armor was quite a sophisticated piece of equipment and all three of the troopers were soon running at top speed, a fast 60 mph. The trio streaked through the halls and passages of the temple, past other Jedi that seemed to be intent on anything but the approaching battle, and the hundreds of lives that were about to be lost, no matter how the battle turned out.

_Contact_. The AI said, and Alexander heard the ripple of fire erupt from the defensive positions just as he reached one of the cathedral like entries to the Jedi temple. He squinted his eyes at the brilliant glare that met him as he stepped out onto the top level of the long sweeping staircase that led down to landing pads and the 'streets' that surrounded he building. The glare didn't come from the setting sun...it came from the immense volume of weapons fire that had erupted from the defending troops. Around the base of the temple defensive works had been built in the weeks that the Covenant invaders had been moving towards Coruscant. An odd mixture of permacrete walls, sandbags, crates, even groundcars and trenches that had been 'carved' out of the streets with fusion cutters and explosives. The steps up to the temple had been covered in a makeshift series of barricades to provide cover for a withdrawal. M21 fire was mixed with longer bursts from light M40's and heavier emplaced M90 GPGMC's. The hail of deadly gauss rounds chopped into the approaching enemy troops.

Alexander looked down at the enemy soldiers as they moved forward. They were Jaffa, Goa'uld slaves. They were poorly armored and equipped compared to the Sentient Coalition troopers that were defending the temple. They were being cut down as they advanced, but they were advancing none the less. Their primitive and inaccurate staff weapons returned fire as they moved forward, their tactics were crude, but they were moving forward, more through payment in blood than anything else.

_Their mobile suits are coming up._ The AI said.

Just as Alexander was about to ask where, the Covenant copied Zaku II's appeared dramatically. Some had simply smashed through the interiors of the surrounding buildings, emerging from their hidden routes in a shower of rubble and debris. Others had 'hopped' over intervening buildings and dropped down in front of the temple. The heavy duty plasma weapons on the Covenant mobile suits opened fire, lashing the defending Coalition troops with fire. But the Coalition soldiers held beneath the hellish bombardment, although their fire slackened as they worked to stay alive.

"Colonel Alexander to BFG teams, _FIRE-FIRE-FIRE!_." Alexander screamed into his com unit.

* * *

"Colonel Alexander to BFG teams, _FIRE-FIRE-FIRE!_."

The words of the commander came harsh and scratchy over the comm.

"Panicked isn't he?" Sergeant Ibrahm asked. The gun crew nodded around him trying to appear calm, but failing. Ibrahm nodded and looked at the massive weapon that the gun crew was serving. Ibrahm thought that the upscale heavy weapon looked like a light anti-tank gun from the second world war, a 76mm anti-tank gun. It was just as large, but looked more sophisticated than the archaic and weak weapon. Most notably though was the muzzle of the gun, it was a semi-parabolic dish, like a radar dish. Too big to be moved intact he and the gun crew had moved the weapon up to the Jedi council's chamber, the upper most tower in the Jedi temple, piece by piece and re-assembled the weapon.

It was officially designated the BFG-20,000 Anti-Large Scale Vehicle and Structure Weapon. Built by the Union Aerospace Corporation with a mixture of Alien and Coalition technology, the weapon was a brutally powerful device that had been intended to fill the role of 'Anti-Mobile Suit/Armor' weapon. This variant had been designed for 'light' troops like SODSAT units, capable of being broken down and moved in man-portable pieces. It wasn't ideal for urban combat, but when your enemy could only move into your fire zones, it was enough.

The four trooper gun crew moved into action. Sergeant Ibrahm took his position at the targeting/gunner chair, Private Miller took his place observing the power output of the weapon. Privates Carlson and James began hauling the 'shells'. Unlike the smaller, personal use BFG 9,000, the 20,000 used self contained fusion power batteries that gave enough power for one shot each.

"Target, first MS. At the base of the main stairs." Ibrahm said. The Transperisteel window had been removed and Ibrahm swiveled the barrel around, centering the targeting system right on the 'chest' of the Mobile Suit.

"Load." Ibrahm said.

"Loaded." Carlson answered as he shoved a shell into the power point.

"Charge?" Ibrahm asked.

"Primed." Miller replied as a loud whine filled the chamber.

"Firing." Ibrahm said.

The chamber seemed to reverberate as the weapon fired. The energy exchange from the fusion battery into the BFG's main round was a loud process. The room almost shook as the glowing green projectile materialized at the end of the projector muzzle, it hung there for a moment before sailing off towards the target that Ibrahm had designated. Ibrahm watched the round flew down towards it's target, mystified by the amount of destructive force he had unleashed. Behind him, James grabbed the spent shell and hurled it back from the breech. Carlson returned with another battery. He grunted as he lifted, even with the augmented strength provided by the Legionnaire armor, those batteries were _heavy_. Miller adjusted the energy controls as the next shell was loaded.

But Ibrahm watched as the energy charge slammed through the Covenant Mobile suit's shields and into the chest armor plating. The massive mobile suit staggered back as the energy projectile hit it square in the chest and drove back into the armor, cracking the thick alloy plate like it was balsa wood. Then the round detonated...

...it imploded first, dragging in some of the plating and body, deforming the surrounding torso and yanking the sensor head down a few feet. Then the round 'exploded', expanding outward in a perfect sphere of annihilating energy. As the round expanded out to it's full twenty foot diameter it completely eradicated all the material it came into contact. Which in this case meant the pilot, the command module, and the control systems. Then, as a contrast to it's birth and short life, the sphere of energy from the BFG 20,000 simply winked out of existence.

Ibrahm smiled wickedly. Other Mobile Suits were taking similar fire, and going down just as quickly in the face of the superior weapon

"Target, second MS..." Ibrham said, shifting his aim.

* * *

Tikrit'allot was ecstatic. His Mobile Suit equipped troops were going to rout these human defenders just like the first ambush that they ran into. There was little that could be done to stop the massive force that was arrayed against the defenders, this planet would fall eas-

"Taking fire! Ta-" The comm unit crackled before being cut off. Tikrit scanned his displays quickly and saw that four of his twelve MS unit were down. He felt rage flow through him as he tried to get a grasp of the situation, he had been more concerned with the infantry he was literally crushing than anything else, his sensors and the recon reports hadn't said there were any heavy weapons waiting around the temple, just infantry.

"Cursed human scum..." Tikrit said to himself, he spun his sensor head in all directions searching for the threat. He couldn't get anything on visual, but his energy scanners registered large anomalies on each of the four outer spires of the Jedi Temple, he growled.

"All units, fire on the spires. I say again, fire on the spires." Tikrit said, as four green energy spheres shot out from each of the tall spires and reduced his force to a third it's original strength. Tikrit let out a wordless cry of rage as he raised his Mobile Suit's main weapon. The plasma cannon brought forth a massive charged energy bolt of condensed plasma to life, sending it out in a tight beam towards the spire. It reached the tower in a heart-beat, and eradicated BFG 20,000 emplacement in a flash of energy. Tikrit swept the plasma stream down and around, slicing the tower apart like a blade of grass in a thresher. The fragments of the top of the tower and the fifty or so feet that had been sheared off the top fell to the ground, smoke rising from the decapitated spire.

Tirkrit spared a glance at the other three, one had merely been smashed by a missile fired from a massive MS launcher it's top blown apart. Another had met a similar fate as the one Tikrit had fired at, the gun and a few dozen feet of tower sliced off. But the third had been hacked apart nearly at the base, a short severed stump all that remained there after the plasma cannon blast had sheered it off. The rubble of the tower crashed to the ground as he watched, a smug expression on his face.

As one, he and the other three suits turned and leveled their weapons at the central spire, firing at the same moment Sergeant Ibrahm and his troops let loose their final round. The green sphere flew towards Tikrit's MS just as he fired his plasma cannon, the other pair of cannons and the missile launcher fired as well. The three plasma beams sliced into the tower bare feet from each other, sending the top 'crown' falling towards the ground for a few moments before the slower missile that had been launched slammed into it and blew it to shreds.

But the parting shot that had been fired streaked towards his mobile suit. Tikrit worked the _Goliath_'s controls as best he could, belatedly, the massive form began to move out of the path as the green orb flew towards him. He almost made it out of the way. But almost wasn't good enough.

The green orb smacked into the shoulder piece of the mobile suit and alarms and warning lights sounded all around him. Tikrit swore loudly as he worked to force the machine to respond, but it was a losing battle. The screens around him faded into static and red lights bathed the control pod, before everything went black and quiet. The only sound that Tikrit heard was his own breathing in the darkness. But he could feel the mobile suit tipping over and it was a sickening sensation in the blackness. But the blackness did not last, in an instant a green glow encompassed the control pod, and his right side. It felt icy cool for a moment as he sat there, the green washing over him before stopping and disappearing. Light flooded in from where the armor and control systems of the _Goliath_ had been eradicated, but Tikrit did not care.

Half his body had ceased to exist, and all he did was scream for the last few moments of his life.

* * *

Colonel Alexander was glad that the thrashing the Mobile Suits had been given had sent the remaining three running off away from the possibility of more BFG fire. A few more minutes of their smashing and fire support might have driven the defenders back into the temple. The sheer shock of the infantry having to fight against Mobile suits without proper MS or even armor support was tough, but there were a few Zeon and EFR troopers in the Coalition defenders to keep the men, women, and others fighting. Alexander had made his way down to the main lines and was getting a first hand view of his troopers fighting, and doing some fighting of his own.

The series of barricades, trenches, and even bunkers was filled with black armored Coalition soldiers, blazing away with their M21's. But even with the heavy fire that was being set down by the rifles, and even heavier M40s and M90s. The Jaffa pressed forward with a single minded determination that flew in the face of logic. But even if their assault was anything but logical the reason they kept getting closer was clear, there were too many to kill. They would eventually get into the defensive lines, then the fighting would get even bloodier, it that were possible.

Alexander crouched next to a permacrete parapet as staff weapon fire tore against it. Around him, other troopers were crouched behind cover, holding their M21's up and squeezing off shots. Even if the weapons didn't have the nice ability to allow the soldier to see where he shot his weapon from behind cover, they still would have been hitting things. One either side of him, two soldiers drew grenades and primed them, the Colonel did the same. They nodded and as one threw them over the lip of their cover. The Coalition Infantry hugged closer to the cover as the grenades went off. As one they rose up and started firing into the wall of jaffa.

More than one Coalition trooper had the standard bayonet on the end of their M21, along with more than a few custom made variants that boasted everything from longer blades to saw edges to multiple points. And every Coalition trooper had their own assortment of 'backup' weapons for close combat beyond the standard issue Ka-Bar. These weapons ran the gambit of sidearms from DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistols and KK-5 Imperial issue blasters, to Colt .45's, Makarovs, Berettas and even Phasers and Klingon disruptor pistols. Along with melee weapons from Klingon Bat'leths to Khukris, Vibro blades and Katanas with more exotic and rare offerings like balisong knives, trench spikes, brass knuckles and switchblades.

The Jaffa surged forward and were close enough to see the individual chains in the crude chainmail armor some wore along with the plate. Alexander snarled and fired into them until they were too close to fire at. He brought the point of his M21's bayonet stabbing into the face of a jaffa, the armored warrior recoiled as blood flowed from his ruined face. Alexander brought his M21 to his hip and squeezed off a double tap of needles into the torso of another jaffa before bringing the weapon around and smacking the reinforced barrel into the side of another Jaffa's head. He stabbed the bayonet into the fallen jaffa's belly and killed the enemy soldier's symbiote, dooming the jaffa to a slow death from the killed creature's blood. The process of hand to hand combat stayed as visceral and brutal as it had throughout the eons that wars had been waged across quadrillions of worlds in millions of galaxies.

The sheer number of Jaffa seemed to have no end as the Coalition troops fought on against being over-run. The Coalition had training, technology and better weapons while the Jaffa had numbers and a fanatical drive to take the trenches. Alexander knew that if the trenches fell than the defenders were far from being destroyed. He sliced his bayonet across the throat of another Jaffa and tried to take stock of the situation as best he could. His tac display showed what was still a solid sea of Jaffa that was slamming into the trenches. There was no way that they could hold their ground and hope to survive.

"Fall back to the temple." Alexander said calmly over his comm unit.

* * *

For the Jedi there was no rush to battle. There was no need to hurry into a fight that would soon be upon them, there were less than a hundred Jedi waiting in the temple, but all of them were veterans of conflicts through the millennia, clones with the memories of horrific wars that had faded into obscurity. They were the best in the Jedi order, and some of them had force powers and combat abilities that went beyond those possessed by Master Skywalker. They were not arrogant or cocky, each one knew their limits and their skills. Very few of the current Jedi order remained in the temple, even with the years of conflict with the Yuhuzzan Vong and other foes, few of them...actually none other than Master Luke Skywalker could boast anything close to the combat skills that these ancient veterans possessed.

And their skills were far in advance of anything the Covenant were prepared for.

Master Revan, or Master Kast as he much preferred to be called sat and meditated at the same place he had when he had finished speaking to Colonel Alexander. He was not bothered by the sounds of warfare and destruction, he was at peace.

Another figure walked into the room, just as calm as Master Kast. He was a clone as well, from the same period of time as Revan, but unlike Revan he had been an exile from the Jedi order, before he had been the one to rebuild it from the ashes of the Jedi Civil war. Master Vox Reekan, known to many current Jedi historians as simply 'The Exile'.

"Master Kast. The Coalition troops are withdrawing into the temple to fight. The Covenant Jaffa are pushing them hard, they will be inside in a few minutes. Revan nodded and stood up. The two Jedi looked at each-other for a few moments before leaving the room and heading out to the main areas of the temple and the fight that lay ahead. As they walked the passages of the temple, each reached out and touched the minds of the Jedi and the Coalition troops they passed, offering some small bit of comfort to the warriors before they began their battle.

* * *

Alexander fell back up the steps to the temple entrance, all around him other soldiers were falling back, not in a rout but in an organized withdrawal. These were experienced soldiers and wouldn't falter as easily as the Covenant wanted them to. They were giving the Covenant hell as they pulled back.

Alexander kept his head down as he ran up the barricaded stairs, past other troopers that crouched down or fired out of prepared loopholes as other troopers fell back. The Colonel fell down against one of the side walls next to an M90 crew firing long bursts into the approaching wall of Jaffa. Alexander raised his weapon and started shooting, trying to give more cover fire and hold back the Jaffa. Not every one of the Jaffa were simply charging forward to be shot, many of them were copying the tactics that the Lizards employed, taking cover and using fire and maneuver. It slowed them down, but more and more of them were staying alive.

"Frag out! Bounding Flechette!" Alexander heard shouted over the local comm unit, which meant someone within twenty feet had sent the message; the local comm was a handy device because it allowed troopers within twenty feet to communicate like they were using bare ears and weren't in armor, but without the hassle of shouting over the sounds of combat. Alexander ducked as four grenades sailed forward and bounced along the pavement. They slid to a stop amongst the jaffa and the alien warriors dropped to take cover from the explosions...

But Bounding Flechette rounds didn't stay on the ground. The grenades were simple, one weighted end to make sure the other was pointed up to the sky, a small charge to propel half the warhead up about fifteen feet, and a bundle of falsettos that would go off and shower the ground around it with deadly slivers of draftee. They worked just as they had been designed too, going off and neatly stapling quite a few of the alien cannon fodder to the ground, wounding maiming and killing others. It didn't quite make the Jaffa pause, nothing seemed to make the Jaffa pause, they just kept pushing and pushing into the walls of fire that were being thrown into them. The Coalition troops kept falling back and falling back, orderly and calm as they did.

Alexander stayed where he was, firing madly as the M90 had to fall back to keep from being over-run. Colonel Alexander scowled as he did, losing that fire support made things far to easy for the Jaffa. They were getting into melee range again and it was going to get messy once more, quite a few Coalition troopers hadn't made it out of the forward line, they'd simply been mobbed by the Jaffa attackers. They Coalition troops were good, but ten on one tended to make 'good' a moot point.

Beside the Colonel a trooper raised his M21 and fired the Flamethrower attachment he had slung beneath it. The gout of flame spewed out and engulfed several Jaffa, igniting them with the stream of burning napalm. Many of the engulfed jaffa began to scream and try to extinguish themselves...a few kept on running towards the Coalition lines, massive burring torches of what were soon to be former sentient beings. Alexander felt a brief pang of regret for the war, but only a brief one. He fired a double tap of needles into the face of a charging Jaffa without regret and barely noted the poor soul's head explode in a shower of ichor.

With a slight curse, Alexander lowered his M21 and fired his underslung electromag grenade launcher, sending a flechette shell arching into the mob that was rushing forward. This was simply a tube of regular flechettes that shot out in a funnel, spreading death as far and as widely as possibly. It looked like a flyswatter had smacked into the literal wall of Jaffa. Alexander turned and kept trying to fall back and get to the temple where the corridors would hem in any attacking force. The Jaffa could simply role over the defensive lines out in the open like this...Alexander could only thank god that the mobile suits had cut and run and they were just dealing with the infantry now.

"INCOMING!" A voice screamed over the local com and reflexively Alexander threw himself flat. A series of dull thuds echoed inside his helmet for a few moments before his ears acclimated. The Colonel noted that the explosive rounds weren't falling on top of him, which was a good thing. He stuck his head up to a firing loophole and looked out, the rounds were detonating twenty feet above the exposed Jaffa, VT proximity fused rounds detonating and spewing shrapnel downwards; whether they were from a mortar company or a Self Propelled artillery unit they were giving the Infantry time to pull out and get to cover, and the soldiers knew just how vital the few seconds the barrage was giving them were. They ran flat out towards the temple entrance, lugging their heavy weapons and gear to keep up the fight.

Behind them, the artillery barrage kept it's steady fury, but the Jaffa were crawling forward, dying in droves, but a few still advancing...

For a moment, Colonel Alexander wondered what could instill the Jaffa with the fanatical drive to take the temple.

* * *

Pilantrannnit of the Clan Smiters of Evil watched the grinding advance of the Jaffa quietly. There was little involved in their tactics, but since the Mobile Suits had fled and the Lizard Tanks and APC's were hanging back, the Infantry wave assault of the Jaffa had been the only effective way to seize the position that the Coalition infantry was holding. They fought well and had probably left a few thousand Jaffa dead in the assault.

Not that it mattered to Pilantrannnit, the Jaffa and the Lizards were slaves...perhaps servants at best...but subservient to the true and proper Children of the Covenant. If they died by the thousands to accomplish their objective, then the objective was accomplished, no matter how many lives had been shed. By the word of the Prophets their lives were meaningless unless given to further the cause of the Covenant.

The Paladin was standing on the rear deck of a Lizard Landcruiser, the commander had his head and shoulders out of the hatch and was watching the Jaffa storming forward as well.

"Commander." Pilantrannnit said quietly.

"Yes superior sir?" The Lizard answered shakily. Paladins inspired fear in any that saw them, but to have one mere feet away was enough for the slaves to be nearly catatonic with fear.

"Prepare to move your forces forward to support the Jaffa." The Paladin said as he leapt off the back of the Landcruiser.

"It shall be done superior Paladin." The Lizard replied, substituting 'Paladin' for 'Sir' reflexively. The Landcruiser hummed to life and began to roll forward. The Paladin began to run towards the head of the line of jaffa, easily outpacing the Landcruisers and APC's that were moving. He leapt over tangles of corpses and primitive entrenchments that were filled with bodies, mostly Jaffa, but the occasional black armored form of a Coalition infantryman lay crumpled on the ground...normally covered with Jaffa bodies.

But Pilantrannnit ignored them, he needed to be closer to the front to properly gauge the course of the battle.

* * *

The pause in the Jaffa advance had been enough for the defending troops to completely withdrawal into the Jedi Temple. The defenders dispersed to prepared defensive positions. The defenders could keep withdrawing and retreating if they had to, but the inside the temple, every bit of corridor, every room was going to be defended. The troops would hold their position, no matter what. The Jedi Temple was an anchor of the 'Triangle' the most visible defensive position on the surface. It was the Alamo of Coruscant. They had to hold and make sure that the Covenant concentrated their forces there, and focus so much on the 'Triangle' that they ignored the New Republic forces that would maul them from their hiding places deep beneath the surface of the city in the dark warrens and passages of the Undercity.

Colonel Alexander stood behind a stout barricade of stone benches that had been thrown up. A pair of M40's and an M90 sat there with several squads, watching the main entrance that they had just retreated through. Clips sat out on flat surfaces, easier to grab. Belts and canisters of ammunition for the M40s and M90 sat ready. They were as set as they were going to be. Alexander gazed at the reinforced blast doors that made up the entry, they were esthetically similar to carved wood doors, but strong as any on a Star Destroyer.

But even with the formidable barrier, the Covenant would only be delayed. Nothing could hold them for long other than men, guns and blood. There were few soldiers here, but that would be more than enough to lay low mounds of Jaffa and Lizards as they tried to push forward. Perhaps if the Jedi deigned to help, then they could actually hold the temple, but for now they were alone.

"One round HEAT into the doors." The Landcruiser commander said. Ahead of him the main entrance to the temple loomed. It looked as though he could smash through it with his landcruiser, but he didn't want to take the chance that it was booby trapped. Losing his vehicle would be extremely unfortunate.

"It shall be done." The gunner said. The autoloader whirred and a round thumped into the breech of the cannon. The main barrel shifted it's aim slightly and bore down on the main doors.

"Firing!" The gunner hissed and the main gun thundered, rocking the landcruiser back on it's tracks. Smoke and wood fragments filled the air, obscuring the door for a few moments. The Commander peered into the smoke as it cleared and hissed in anger. The wood facade had been obliterated, now the shine of metal was in it's place, dented and warped metal from the HEAT round, but it hadn't been a wood door.

"Reload and fire again." Votal hissed. The gunner obeyed and let lose another HEAT round into the doors, this time the center of the metal barrier buckled inwards.

"Forward! Ram though the barrier!"

The driver did as he was ordered and the landcruiser rolled forward, slamming into the barrier and beating down the door. The two halves of metal collapsed in and were flattened by the treads of the tank as it rolled in. The gunner fired the co-axial machine gun and tank cannon at the same time, following up the shock of their entry with raw firepower. Behind them, an APC followed, it's cannon blazing along with Lizard infantrymales inside the troop compartment, adding their rifle fire to the confusion. Smoke dischargers fired on the vehicles as they moved, filling the main entry hall with smoke and confusion.

Not that it did them any good.

Enemy fire still lashed out against the jaffa infantry that charged forward. The commander snarled, searching through the hall with the thermal imagers, peering through the smoke and trying to locate the enemy defenders. Where ever they were they were well hidden...too well. Another APC entered, more infantrymales inside laying down fire.

And more jaffa died.

"This is Votal, does anyone see the enemy? I have nothing on thermals." He said.

"Negative. Nothing on thermals, and smoke is obscuring our visuals." One of the APC commanders said. Votal snarled again, the smoke had been intended to interfere with their enemies sight, not their own. Now they couldn't even identify where the fire was coming from with their eyes. Votal hissed in dismay.

The Landcruiser commander looked about once more, this time through his periscopes instead of the thermal imaging cameras. The dark clouds of smoke and dust that filled the hall made it difficult to see much of anything, but he could make out a few shapes in the whirling clouds, another landcruiser, the APC's, even the shapes of jaffa, marching forward and being cut down. Muzzle flashes illuminated the smoke, making the scene surreal.

"Push forward, we need to clear the hall." Votal said stubbornly.

"It shall be done." The other commanders replied. The landcruisers pushed in further through the smoke, firing in every possible direction, but blind to what awaited them.

* * *

Colonel Alexander thought that he and his few men were alone in the main hall, with no Jedi or other soldiers standing along side them. But there was one Jedi Knight that waited for her moment to strike.

She stood atop one of the tall statues that lined the sides of the main entry hall. Her silver eyes gazed down through the smoke, the force enhancing her vision so that she could see through the smoke and haze that filled the chamber. She watched the shapes of lizard landcruisers and APCs push forward, flanked by Jaffa. She watched the Coalition troops cutting them down with their weapons. But they pressed forward. She winced slightly as a Coalition Electromag HEAT grenade slammed into an APC and turned it into a fireball, along with the 10 lizards inside. Black smoke joined the white and the entire hall continued to fill with a gray haze.

She white robes rustled slightly in the artificial wind that ripped through the hall. It wasn't odd that everything about her was white, from her robes, to her eyes and her hair. She had walked the path of the light along with the Exile and others, and even if she was a clone, it made no difference to her. Her memories made her who she was.

A Jedi Knight, a Guardian.

Champion of the light, a former Echani Handmaiden.

Her name was Brianna, although only one person, one man ever used her real name, most simply called her 'Handmaiden'. Her martial skills were some of the best among the 'Awakened' Jedi. But her Echani training, combat experience, Jedi training, and learning from a more complete school of Jedi though made her one of the deadliest Jedi that lived, better than the Skywalkers or the Solos.

She was a warrior, and now was her time to strike. She dove off the top of the statue, her twin lightsabers igniting in flight. Their violet blades casting everything around them in an ethereal glow. She fell through the clouds and into the midst of the combat with effortless ease.

She landed atop one of the Lizard APCs and with a gentle touch of the force on the minds of the enemy, she retained the shroud of invisibility, spending a moment to formulate her exact strategy. Reaching out with the force, Brianna lifted one of the Landcruisers off the ground and hurled it through the air, using it like a mallet to smash both it and an APC into a twisted wreck. Without waiting, she flipped off the side of the APC, one of her lightsabers twirling in a long arch through the missile pod of the APC, and then seared off the edge of the turret before returning to her grasp. Havoc reigned.

* * *

"Emergency! Emerg-" A voice hissed through the comm system before dissolving into static. Votal snapped an eye turret around and gazed at his combat display, one of the other landcrusiers and an APC had just been destroyed. He hissed as the images winked out of existence. The smoke was too thick to see what had happened, but it had to be a mine or some kind of explosive...even though there was no sound...

"All units, do you see any hostiles?" Votal asked through the comm units, still trying to pick out any kind of target.

"We have reached their defensive position and are forcing them back!" One of the Jaffa shouted through a comlink. Votal hissed with pleasure, now maybe he could keep his tanks alive...

"By the Emperor! My APC is being peeled open like a can!" One of the APC commanders hissed in panic.

"What? Say again." Votal said, casting his eyes down reflexively.

"We-" Came a hiss before silence.

"Say again! Repeat! Say again, that is an order!" Votal shouted into his mic. No response came. Votal snarled and opened the hatch above him, he had to see what was going on. Smoke poured into the fighting compartment as he raised his head and shoulders out of the hatch and gazed around. Muzzle flashes, and golden blasts from staff weapons filled the smoke with strange radiant patterns. But it was so thick that Votal was lucky to see his fingerclaws in front of his snout. But as he watched, another series of colors filled the smoky darkness...twin shafts of violet twirled through the haze.

"We're under attack! Some kind of Tau'ri with strange energy blades! She is carving through us, we can't hit her, we can't shoot her!" One of the jaffa screamed through the radio, Votal could even hear the screams over the din of the battle.

"Gunner! Target that violet streak!" Votal shouted on impulse. The main gun shifted and bore down on the target. The gunner's hiss of 'it shall be done' was lost in the rumble of the cannon. Votal made the affirmative hand gesture without thinking, that should take care of the tostevite. The orange explosion knocked back the smoke, clearing away the haze and thick clouds so that Votal could see the remains of the gunner's handiwork.

Gore and blood covered the area...but in the center of this sick carpet of death, stood a Tostevite, garbed in white wrappings and clutching two glowing violet blades, she looked to be completely unharmed.

Before Votal could order the gunner to fire again, the coaxial machine gun opened up, just as the tostevite threw one of the energy blades through the air. Votal watched in horror as it tumbled end over end, right through the middle of the main gun, slicing the carefully crafted piece of Race engineering into scrap, before arching up and doing the same to his head and torso before returning to her hand.

Votal gasped once, the last thing passing through his mind -other than the lightsaber- was how he was ever going to make his body paint look accurate again.

* * *

"She is a very capable fighter, calm, collected, and extremely skilled." Master Kast said. Master Reekan nodded and smiled slightly. They stood on one of the stone arched walkways that spanned the width of the Main hall, beneath them, the battle raged between the small group of Coalition troops and the Covenant, Brianna slicing her way through the Jaffa, and Lizard vehicles with impunity.

"Quite like Bastila..." Master Kast said softly. Reekan remained silent, gazing down into the whirling battle.

"Something's coming." Master Reekan said. Kast nodded and extended his own senses outside the building, his senses stretched out and felt through the horde of minds that waited outside the entrance, preparing to flood into the Jedi Temple. Through these ranks of enemy troops fear and anxiety ran rampant, there emotions made it clear that many had seen war, and none were eager to fight and die as slaves of the Covenant. But even this lack of faith in the Covenant mission did not overpower their own hatred of Humans overpowered it.

But that was not what the pair of Jedi sensed...

It was as though a vast hurricane had run through the seething ranks of Covenant troops. A whirlwind of fear swept through them, and at the center of this fear and utter terror, was a calm, quiet center of calm, calm so still that it felt like the freezing chill of Hoth surrounded by such potent and powerful emotions. This pool of calm swept up the stairs, a pathway in the fearful being made for him to walk though to the top of the stairs and he stood at the main entry, smoke poured out through the shattered door and past him.

"He is powerful...very powerful." Master Kast said and Revan silently nodded. They could merely sense the figure in the smoke, a stark contrast to the furious battle and high strung emotions that writhed beneath them. Brianna had also sensed this presence, but her focus was on the battle at hand, and the Coalition troops were firing with emotionless and thoughtless efficiency. They were professionals, it was not a hectic battle for them, just a battle. The pair of Jedi Masters watched the doorway, the figure did not step into view, remaining shrouded in the mystique of mystery and imagination. Master Gando Kast, also Revan the Prodigal Jedi Knight, and Master Vox Reekan, the Jedi Exile stood and watched, gauging this newcomer before they could even see him. It was Master Reekan that spoke first to break the studious silence.

"He's their commander."

Kast nodded.

Above the din of the battle a cry rang out in a tongue alien to both the Jedi Masters...but not as obscure to the Jaffa and Lizards, as one, their fire subsided and they fell back. But they did not retreat, the Lizard Tanks and APC's that had streamed into the hall formed a skirmish line, and spaced between them were shoulder to shoulder ranks of Jaffa. The jaffa kept their staff weapons leveled, and the tanks and APCs slowly panned their main guns back and forth, but no one fired or began to advance. Slowly, the sheets of fire erupting from the Coalition fighting position subsided. The soldiers decided that would be a good time to withdrawal scattered beneath the vanishing cover of the smoke screen, heading deeper into the temple for more constricted terrain that the Lizard Tanks could not use. Brianna's spinning form slowed and stopped, still in her fighting stance, her eyes tracked around the hall before she too decided that it was time to withdrawal and leapt high into the air, the force propelling her upwards. She did a back flip, landed on the head of a statue and then made another leap up and landed, crouched on the balcony next to Master Kast and Master Reekan.

"They were terrified...but not of me. Their fear was of that creature." Brianna said, pointing to the figure that stepped from the smoke and stood in front of the Covenant line.

The Edenganer Paladin of the Clan Smiters of Evil was a sight to behold. The alien warrior was clad in a head to toe robe that glistened as though it were woven of pure silver. Beneath the silvery hood, the black scaled, demonic face of the Paladin looked out, his own black lifeless eyes gazing out at the imposing hall that had become a battlefield. Sculptures and statues had been shattered by explosives and cannon fire. Mosaics and paintings had been desecrated with small arms fire and burned. Bodies and blood coated the floor with a thick coating of ichor.

As the Paladin walked, his cloak fell open and the hood fell back revealing his silvery armor beneath. It was imbued with the same intricate arrays of incantations and inscriptions carved from a strange language. The characters seemed to writhe and dance in the light as it danced over the reflective surfaces. No gems were set in this armor, just the carved silver inscriptions. In one clawed hand, the Paladin clutched his weapon. The Paladin walked forward, carefully avoiding the fallen bodies as he did. His voice called out in harsh guttural tones for a few minutes, before falling into perfect, flawless Basic.

"Surrender. Your deaths would be pointless." He called loudly far below.

"He seems to be very refined." Brianna said.

"I feel that without his guidance, this army will fight with far less wild abandon." Master Kast said. Reekan nodded, his eyes following the movements of the alien warrior.

"He will not be easy to defeat." Master Reekan said and Kast nodded in reply.

"Knight Brianna, return to the lower levels and prepare to fight. Even if we do defeat him, these Covenant will still attack fear of greater retribution drives them tirelessly." Master Kast said. Brianna nodded, locking eyes with Vox for a moment before leaving.

"We must take him together." Master Kast said, looking down at the silver robed opponent far below. Master Reekan nodded. As one, they dove over the side and plummeted from the arched walkway, down to the main floor of the entry hall. With force assisted grace they landed without injury or difficulty. Master Reekan landed in half crouch behind the Paladin. His single blade lightsaber ignited into a blade of pure cool white, clutched in high guard above his head. Master Kast landed standing, directly in front of the Paladin, both his lightsabers were ignited, the crimson beams making the Paladin's silver armor glitter in a nefarious red. The blades were held crossed in front of Master Kast, his own face lit by them, making it look demonic.

"So, you have shown yourselves. I know that there are more of you here, many more. Not as powerful as you though...I am honored by this show of strength." The Paladin said, bowing low to the Jedi.

"We do not wish to kill you, but your armies have come to wipe out this temple and enslave this world." Master Kast said.

"I understand the necessity of this battle, but you must understand, the will of the Prophets is that the Covenant and it's children remain safe. The Paladins are here to maintain that safety and fight the Great Evils that fill the Universe. The Coalition is a threat to the Covenant, as are the Spartans and you...if you chose to fight us...are another threat." The Paladin said.

"The Covenant are just as much a threat to the survival of the Coalition, and the Coalition was only formed to protect Sentient peoples from the militancy and Genocide of the Covenant." Master Kast responded.

"I see that we cannot negotiate a peaceful solution. So we must do battle." The Paladin said, his cloak seemed to lift up in a great wind and fly back directly towards Master Reekan. As the Cloak flew, Reekan swept one hand swiftly before him, using the Force to propel the Cloak away. The Paladin had used this momentary gap to lunge forward, sent forward by unknown forces, the evil looking warrior dove through the air, his _Norifostraeh _held in both hands, swinging it. Master Kast, still possessed of the strength and force power he had wielded in the darker days when he was known as Darth Revan was an accomplished warrior. Both of his crimson blades slashed out and hammered into the alien staff. But rather than slice it, the archaic weapon glowed with some inner power and merely sparked against the lightsabers.

The Paladin twirled the staff around at such an angle that the dual lightsabers slid forward. He crouched and Master Kast slid forward a moment, carrying him off balance. In a seamless move, the Paladin swept one armored leg around and knocked Master Kast off his feet. But instead of falling the Jedi Master back flipped and out of combat. As he did so, Master Reekan moved forward. He was a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars, and the only Jedi not to follow Darth Revan down the Dark Path. His white blade sliced directly towards the small of the Paladin's back. The alien warrior sensed the attack and swiftly spun, holding it's staff vertically, and catching the lightsaber. Master Reekan used the resistance to spin around, bringing the lightsaber back and over his left shoulder, stabbing downward as he spun back, the tip of the saber aimed to stab into the shoulder of the Paladin's armor. The alien ducked down, making the saber scrape across it's armor in a shower of sparks and in retaliation, it twirled on the ball of it's right foot and did a reverse spin kick into Master Reekan's stomach. The force was enough to make him sail through the air before landing, the grizzled war veteran rolled and then skidded to a halt on his knees, his lightsaber cutting into the floor.

Master Kast charged forward, slicing his sabers back and forth across each other, overlapping the attacks and aiming to catch the paladin on either side of his armor. The paladin backpedaled and narrowly avoided each of the slashes, then, Master Kast stabbed forward with both blades. The paladin twisted around and both blades skipped off the oblique of his armor, sparking. Then he brought his own staff up, the lower tip connecting with Master Kast's chest and lifting him up and catapulting him through the air as though the Paladin had been throwing a spade full of dirt. The Jedi Master spun in the air, then righted himself and landed on his feet. Master Reekan and Master Kast were once again on either side of the Paladin, Master Reekan kneeling on the floor, Master Kast standing, watching.

"It is pointless. Surrender and I shall not have to cleanse you." The Paladin responded.

Master Reekan and Master Kast nodded to each other. As one they moved, Master Reekan reaching out with the Force, and lifting one of the many pieces of rubble that filled the chamber and hurling the hunk of stone the size of a groundcar towards the alien. Master Kast hurled both of his lightsabers, guiding the spinning blades with the Force. The lightsabers sailed through the air, spinning into glimmering red disks. The paladin swung his _Norifostraeh _through the air as well, sending one lightsaber flying into the air wildly, and the other burying itself into the floor.

But the massive chunk of rubble continued to fly on towards him. The Paladin turned slowly as the rough piece of stone neared him, and the alien seemed to study it for a moment, and then leapt into the air, easily dodging the boulder. But instead of moving to one side the Paladin landed on top of the rock, and knelt atop it. It reeled back one clawed black hand.

"FIST OF HELL FLAME!" It shouted and it's closed fist erupted in tendrils of black fire, the runes on the Paladin's armor glowed. It slammed it's fist down and the piece of rubble became covered in flame before exploding outward into thousands of small fragments. The Paladin dropped through the storm of stone fragments and fire, landing on the ground it's eyes glowing with inner light.

"That was one of my less powerful techniques. I implore you, surrender and spare this bloodshed." The Paladin said.

"We cannot do such a thing." Master Kast said. The Paladin shook it's head.

"As you wish." The Paladin said and charged towards Master Reekan. The Jedi Master gestured with his left hand and lifted it up slowly, as though he were lifting some immense weight. The massive chunk of flooring the Paladin was running across began to lift up in a ragged chunk. The Paladin leapt, but the massive chunk of floor pulled free of the floor and flipped up, hurtling high into the air, and smashing through one of the overhead walkways. Master Reekan panted, weakened by such a massive show of force, his eyes scanning the floor for the Paladin.

Suddenly, from behind him, he sensed that immense calm and brought his lightsaber back, parallel to his spine. The Paladin's _Norifostraeh _slammed into the energy blade. The alien spun around, swinging the staff wide and around. Master Reekan brought his lightsaber back in front of him and again parried the blow, but the Paladin had already moved, it's left fist slammed forward, it's forearm armor scraping the lightsaber, but it's fist smashing into Master Reekan's face, driving him backwards. The Paladin drove after him, staff ready to strike once more. But it's pursuit was interrupted by one of Master Kast's lightsabers, twirling through the air. The Paladin dove forward, twirling over the blade with ease, high into the air. Midway up, he stopped spinning, his _Norifostraeh _staff poised in a stabbing killing blow to strike down Master Reekan before he could stand.

From nowhere, the massive bulk of a lizard Landcruiser slammed into the Paladin, and carried him through the air, crashing through one of the stone statues of a Jedi, before slamming into a pillar and clean through a wall.

Master Reekan rose, shaking his head as Master Kast joined him. The two Jedi Masters stood silently watching the Lizard Landcruiser as it hung there, caught forty feet off the ground in the wall, propelled there by the intangible power of the Force. Neither of the Jedi moved, they stood there, waiting. They both knew that this was not the end of the battle...

The Landcruiser was suddenly hurled from the hole in the wall, and fell to the floor with a crash. Out from the dust and falling rubble, the Paladin stood, unscathed.

"I see that you two are quite powerful...normal techniques shall not do for you." The Paladin said. It raised it's right arm and opened it's hand upwards. The black scaled skin started to glow, along with many of the runes running up the silver armored arm. Up the pauldrons and armor an outline began to glow red amongst the silver.

"This is one of the most powerful techniques that the Clan Smiters of Evil have been taught. It is difficult to learn and very difficult to use successfully. But those that have proven themselves capable of utilizing it, like me. If you fail to draw upon this spirit properly, it consumes you..." The paladin said, and his right arm burst into black flames, the red outline finally became clear, it was a dragon, curling around the Paladin's arm from the shoulder to the back of it's right hand.

"DRAGON OF THE DARKNESS FLAME!" The Paladin screeched and a massive specter erupted from it's arm made entirely of black fire. The ethereal form of a Dragon comprised entirely of black fire raced through the air towards the two Jedi. Master Kast and Master Reekan dove out of the way of the flaming dragon as it flew through the air, trying to incinerate them. The black dragon skipped off the floor, charging the stone and crushing it inwards as it twisted around, aiming to grab Master Kast in it's jaws of flame. The Jedi Master leapt into the air, avoiding another lunge from the dragon. But as Master Kast shot up, the dragon twisted once more this time closing on him.

But this was Master Gando Kast, formerly Darth Revan, wielder of immense Force power...some say even stronger powers than Master Skywalker or Emperor Palpatine. He let go of his lightsabers and lowered his hands, tendrils of blue-white lightening shot downwards. The massive amounts of Force energy writhed against the magical powers of the Paladin for a few moments the black fire and blue-white lightening mixing and writing against each other. Then, in a flash of blue-white lighting and black fire, the dragon vanished.

Master Kast dropped back to the ground, both his lightsabers returning to his hands.

Master Kast and Reekan stood, waiting for the Paladin to make the next move. The alien had not moved, it hadn't even blinked.

"Impressive. Most impressive." The Paladin said, watching them intently, his black dead eyes unmoving. The Paladin dropped to the ground, not noticing the forty foot drop, he didn't even crouch slightly as he landed. The alien walked along, gesturing slightly and sending his silver cloak flying across the hall and back to his grasp. He donned the silver cloak and covered his head with it, leaving only a small amount of his dark black scaled muzzle protruding. He strode up to within a few feet of the two Jedi.

Both the Masters stood ready for whatever ploy the Paladin would try.

"You have fought well and honorable, I shall allow you twenty four hours before continuing the assault." The Paladin said, kneeling and bowing. Masters Kast and Reekan looked at each other, then closed down their lightsabers. Both of them bowed as one to the alien warrior.

"We accept the amnesty. I hope that you do not wish to continue this slaughter again tomorrow." Master Reekan asked.

"I must, my orders come from the Prophets, and such orders cannot be ignored." The paladin said, rising.

"That is unfortunate." Master Kast said.

"I shall see you on the battlefield tomorrow." The paladin replied, not addressing Master Kast's comment. He then turned and walked away, shouting loudly to the Jaffa and Lizards. They filed out of the main hall and the Paladin followed, looking back once at the two Jedi, and bowing it's head.

"They are not monsters Master Reekan." Master Kast said.

"No they are not. Not at all." Master Reekan replied.

* * *

Colonel Alexander knelt behind another of the numerous barricades throughout the temple. This one wasn't a simple embrasure of benches in a massive cathedral like entry hall. This was situated in one of the smaller, tighter side corridors, anyone charging down this could only come three abreast, and they'd be chopped apart by rifle fire. The platoon had broken up, and once more they'd moved deeper into the temple giving ground to let the Covenant move against stronger, and better dug in fighting positions. Alexander and the others waited, the silence that had begun to come from the main hall were worrisome. He'd seen the Jedi Knight Brianna fighting the Covenant troops, slicing apart tanks and throwing them with the power of the Force...a single Jedi could have held that chamber.

But two Masters had gone into combat with that Paladin, even if it was a Smiter of Evil, it had little chance against Revan or the Exile. They were two of the strongest Cloned Jedi, and perhaps two of the strongest Jedi period. They should have been able to dispatch the Paladin easily, and hold off the entire Covenant assault on their own...

"I think you overestimate our capabilities Colonel." The voice of Master Kast said. Alexander scowled behind his helmet and raised his M21, the other men of the squad did the same as Masters Reekan and Kast walked around the corner at the end of the hall they were in.

"Get out of my mind Jedi." Alexander said. Kast looked at him and shrugged.

"We have managed to gain 24 hours for your forces to prepare." Master Reekan said.

"How? Did you drive them off?" Alexander asked.

"In a manner of speaking, the Paladin wished for more time to prepare after our fight." Kast replied.

"You didn't kill it? How couldn't _you?_" Colonel Alexander said, shocked by the pronouncement.

"Because our combined abilities, while substantial are very much rivaled by the power present in a single Paladin." Master Kast said. Alexander was shocked, no matter how much disdain he felt for the Jedi and their aberrant powers, they were extremely formidable.

"So 24 hours." Alexander said grimly.

"Yes."

"Combat has erupted across the planet now. The New Republic and Imperial forces moved against the Covenant forces that were on planet. We don't know how many casualties have been sustained or what kind of kill ratios are being managed. But it's bloody. And I think the Covenant are going to lose this one." Colonel Alexander said brightly.

Masters Kast and Reekan frowned together.

"Colonel, this is a planet of 950 Billion people. There are nearly 20 Million soldiers from the New Republic, Empire, and various Coalition partners here. We believe that there are all in all, 10 Million Covenant troops in the first wave...with nearly 1 Billion eventually arriving here. No one is going to win here Colonel. Not us, not them. No one. Coruscant is going to be reduced to a graveyard before this battle is over, the New Republic and the Empire aren't going to let it go, and they'll feed soldiers and equipment into this fight without end." Master Reekan said.

"It's going to be a contest of pride Colonel. The Covenant want to show that they can take a planet with sheer force of will and numbers, and for both the New Republic and the Empire, it's their Capital. They won't retreat." Master Kast added quietly.

No one said anything at all after that.

"It could take years before this battle ends." Master Reekan finished.

And around them across the planet, Millions upon millions of soldiers fight in what would eventually be called by many troopers and commanders as 'Blood World' from the sheer number of dead and dying that would cover the rubble and streets of the planet.

* * *

Next Up, Chapter 11: American Empire

What had been one of the Coalition's strongest members has begun to feel the Great War is not progressing properly and that the Coalition seeks to exercise too much control over the member states of the SC. The United Stellar States begins to shift it's own Military, Economic and Political might to creating it's own empire to fight the Covenant, the 'Allied Americas'. The USS has better technology than the SC's combined members, a larger military, and a much more grim outlook on the Universe at large...they've fought and beaten nearly every major Non-human race in the SC within their own galaxy, and are ready and willing to strike out on their own if the Coalition cannot win.

Will the fragile Sentient Coalition avoid outright Civil War?

Without the Membership of the USS, can it survive the Great War?


	13. Chapter 11: American Empire

Hey, look, I updated twice in the same year! It might happen more often too!

Alrighty folks, now this is a treat, you get to see what the inspiration was for Far Flung Hope. Enjoy.

* * *

The Coalition takes a dark turn...are they really the benevolent protective force that they look to be? Or are there darker motivations behind their military buildup and the war with the Covenant?

Will the Coalition face internal dissent and warfare on two fronts?

Or will it face Coup'de'tat and overthrow...or even Civil War?

Will the Covenant show themselves to be perhaps...the lesser of two evils?

Or will they truly be the horror that they have shown themselves to be?

Will the Forerunners experiment come crashing down?

Or will it's experiments become stronger and better from their trial?

Will the author ever get to the rest of the story?

Or will he continue to stall?

Hn, what do you think?

* * *

Chapter 11: _American Empire_

The United Stellar States, with a population counted in Quintillions, an army measured in Quadrillions and a space fleet that numbers in hundreds of millions of vessels. With technology that is nearly 8,000 years more advanced than the Asguard, Tollan, Federation or Human Alliance in everything from small arms, to energy production, to Starships and Mobile Suit design. Their economy, industrial base, research facilities, and agricultural production exceed any other faction in the Sentient Coalition. They have a more diverse composition of Alien races than the Federation or the New Republic, combined. Citizens in the United Stellar States vary from Humans, to Klingons, to Yautja Predators, to Yevetans, to Lizards, to Asguard, to Rodians and Mon Calamari.

They are very much a pillar of the Sentient Coalition.

Problem is, they want out.

Bigger problem is, the Coalition doesn't want to let them leave.

* * *

_"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves for our Posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America..."_

-Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America.

"The world will never love us, they will respect and fear us."

-President Theodore Roosevelt - (R), Human, unknown location

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

President Kennedy, Human - (D), quote from his inaugural address.

"They hate us because we're the brightest shining star of freedom in the world."

-President George W. Bush, Human - (R), Quoted after the 9/11 Terrorist attacks.

"We may be hated because we are free and open and accepting, but they will fear us because we are the strongest, most intelligent, most cunning nation in the galaxy because of it."

-President Olintan, Mon Calamari - (R), first non-human president of the United Stellar States, as stated in his inaugural address.

"Why exactly should saving peoples lives be considered '_realpolitik_'?"

-President Harris Kennedy, Human -(M), responding to statements that intervention against suspected (and later confirmed) Romulan Genocide was for territorial gain.

"If it is a choice between surrender or death, I for one chose death, because I am too proud to call myself an American to call myself anything else."

-President Atvar, Lizard - (F), opening statement of his Inaugural address.

"Peace and pacifism are luxurious ideals of those who are safe and protected, luxuries of those that have never known hardships and sacrifice...we have no time for such luxuries."

-President Kli'manamae, Yautja - (M), rebuttal to statements made after the start of the Borg Invasion.

"Why is it wrong to help our own people? Why is it wrong to do what is right?"

-President Synn Quidub, Sullustian -(D), open question given to those who opposed an expanded military buildup after Borg forces assimilated nearly five billion people in raids.

"Freedom isn't free, Slavery is."

-President Minnenedo, Rodian - (R), statement made as he revealed the presence of other galaxies and other American nations.

* * *

**Earth 1984-2323-1776, United Stellar States Homeworld,**

**Washington D.C., The White House, Situation Room,**

**July 3rd, 2554 UST, 2000 Hrs**

The White House situation room was almost a rival of the design setup for Coalition high command. It wasn't as large, but the input and information being routed into the amphitheater style room was more than the SC received for their own territory. A single row of seats sat behind an arched conference table that bent around a galaxy hologram that spun in the air. Normally it was zoomed out showing the confrontation with the extra-galactic Borg threat and the latest flare up with them. Now it was zoomed in, showing the solar system. The planets and space colonies hung in the air above the President and the Joint Chiefs as they conversed.

"Mr. President. We estimate that the vanguard of the Covenant Armada will be dropping out of slipspace at this location in less than an hour, then orienting Sol-ward before moving into the system." The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said gesturing to a point of light just outside the orbit of Pluto. President Minnenedo stared appraisingly at the image. The Covenant had bypassed hundreds of rings of fortresses and defenses that had been built along trade lanes, Hyperjump gates and other transit hubs. The same defensive positions that had made it impossibly bloody for the Borg to push against Earth. But now, the Covenant invasion force were facing nearly ten times their number in ships, and a planetary garrison on earth that numbered four billion battle hardened elite troops, the best in the union.

"I see. So given the fact that the First Fleet out numbers them, and we out-technology them, we are going to give them a chance to surrender, correct?" The President asked. The towering form of Marine General Dachande stood silent in his green marine uniform. The outfit was festooned with ribbons and decorations, and even included not one, but two Medals of Honor around the neck. The warriors uniform even included the normal, 'cultural' touches that USS member species customized their armor with. Although General Dachande avoided wearing human skulls along his waist out of hunter's pride, a few strangely shaped alien skulls were there.

"Of course Mr. President." Dachande said, his mouthparts splaying outwards slightly at the comment.

"Good. Is there any more information on these raids being perpetrated by the, Imperium of Man?" Minnenedo said.

"Not much sir. One patrol group engaged an assorted probe of their vessels in the outerlying territories. Our forces engaged and crippled one of their ships, it's under examination now."

"And the others?"

"Fled sir. We still haven't managed to locate where exactly they're coming from."

"Keep trying, we need to end this threat, quickly."

"We're doing our best Mr. President."

"Now, given the present circumstances...it's time to address the nation." President Minnenedo said standing. The Rodian stood and left the Situation room, returning the salutes of the Joint Chiefs smoothly as he left. He stepped through the armored doors and walked through the hallways towards the lift that would carry him to the main levels of the White House and the Oval office. Behind him, silently stalked his Secret Service contingent, fully bedecked in assault armor and openly carrying Fusion Assault Rifle Systems. With an invasion of the Sol system about to commence, the Secret Service was not taking any chances, all agents in Washington were armed to the teeth, and the 10th Capital Defense Division was on full alert.

"Mr. President, all the networks are ready for your address. I would advise against this address sir." Desmardes said. The Asguard was chief of staff and Minnendo's most trusted adviser.

"It needs to be done. We've been helping the Coalition and exploring this HALO network in secret. But the Covenant are knocking on our doors, and we're about to bring representatives from over a hundred different Americas here for the 4th. I think the public needs to know." The President said.

"But sir, the sheer shock of this..."

"The same shock when we went to war with the Borg a thousand years ago? Or the same shock when the United States of America first had to deal with an Alien invasion over eight thousand years ago? America has survived, we will survive." Minnenedo said as they stepped into the elevator.

"As you say sir. We'll be watching." Desmardes said softly as they were spirited up nearly forty sublevels in a few moments. The pair stepped out of the elevator and began to walk to the Oval office in silence. Instead of being surrounded by the usual throng of advisors and staff, the halls were empty and quiet. Marine guards stood at intervals along the corridor in dress uniform, they saluted as the pair walked past.

"We're ready sir. Good luck." Desmardes said, stepping to one side as he pushed the door to the Oval office open. Inside the room was packed with technicians and reporters. Holo-cams focused on him as he walked in. Minnenedo nodded sagely to them as he walked up to the desk set before the smooth arch of windows. He sat down and ran sucker-tipped fingers across the surface of it for a moment, contemplating, thinking of how many other American Presidents sat behind this very desk...to work, to compose, or to address the nation throughout the Millennia.

Lincoln, Grant, Wilson, FDR, Truman, JFK, Nixon, Regan, Bush, McCain, the list of great men faced with horrifying circumstances went on and on through the millennia. Silently, Minnenedo wonder how he would have done in their circumstances, fighting against the archaic forces of America and Liberty. Back in simpler times against simpler foes. It was something that he could take refuge in, knowing that however difficult those ancient battles had been finished, and America survived. Now it's fate was in his hands, and soon, it wouldn't just be this America, but perhaps many others.

Minnenedo cast a black glassy eye towards the small image on his desk of him, so many hundreds of years ago back when he'd joined up for his mandatory ten year term in the army, he looked so fresh faced and so very naive standing there, saluting in his green army uniform. Back then, he'd never thought he would be sitting here, faced with what was perhaps the most difficult challenge that the United States could ever face.

The cameras focused in on him as he sat there, lost in his own thoughts for a moment.

"Mr. President, we're live in five..." One of the technicians said and began to count down. Minnenedo brought his gaze away from the picture and looked square into the camera. He took a deep breath and calmed his nerves, even if he was a war veteran and the President of the United States, he still got the jitters.

"You're on sir." One of the technicians said softly and pointed at him.

"Good evening my fellow citizens." Minnenedo said.

"I am sure that my sudden and surprising appearance this evening has unnerved many of you. And such concern is understandable, I come before you this evening to inform you of what is perhaps the most momentous moments in US history. An invading force will be appearing outside the orbit of Pluto within the hour. Now this in and of itself is of no cause for concern. The First Fleet outnumbers their forces by over ten to one, and our technology and training far surpass their abilities. They will be swiftly dealt with. What is a momentous occasion is the fact that this invading armada, comes from beyond the edges of our galaxy. Much like the Borg, they come to attack us and annihilate us, because we are considered 'in their way'. In addition to this force, another force dwells beyond our galaxy. This is the Sentient Coalition, an alliance of species and nations that was formed to fight the Covenant Hegemony, a genocidal force. For several months now, I've ordered military units to prepare and transfer to assist the Coalition in their battle. Unfortunately the Covenant has come here..." Minnenedo said and paused for effect.

"No longer can this war continue in secret, or in half measure. As of now, I am authorizing a complete mobilization of all USS military forces to prepare to fight this threat. All Regular and reserve forces are to be called up to prepare for full scale war. Make no mistake, this is something that our great nation has not seen in millennia, perhaps the only threat that has come this close in scope is that of the Borg. While both these threats wish to see the destruction of our way of life, there is a simple difference, the Borg wish to assimilate us, the Covenant wish to eradicate us."

"They claim to be on a religious mission, a Divine Crusade. But there is nothing holy about what they do, or what they have done. They are genocidal murderers. they have enslaved billions and forcibly conscripted and brainwashed countless more. They are evil, and there is no other way to adequately describe their goals and objectives as being anything other than that. For all the lives that have been lost to these killers, we must win through to victory."

"Now I've never been an eloquent speaker, I'm a to the point kind of person, so that's all I have to say on this matter. But I implore all of you, pray for our soldiers, sailors, pilots and marines. This is going to be one of the worst wars we have ever fought as a great nation. Good night, and thank you for your time." Minnenedo said simply, and nodded to the camera.

The technician nodded and Minnendo turned away from them as everyone hustled from the room, leaving the President in peace. He turned and gazed out the armored windows and up into the starry sky. With his bear eyes he could see the orbital space colonies and the hundreds of defensive space-fortresses as they drifted overhead. Even through the slight haze of the planetary defensive shields, the night sky over Washington was breath taking to see for the first time. And all around the city, various newcomers were waiting, all of them presidents from other Americas from other Galaxies, or other nations with similar ideals. Tomorrow would hold a fantastic demonstration for them.

* * *

**Earth 1984-2323-1776, United Stellar States Homeworld,**

**Washington D.C., The Memorial Walk,**

**July 4th, 2554 UST, 1200 Hrs**

After it's nuclear destruction and rebuilding after what many outsiders would call 'The Fourth World War', but what was known to USS citizens as 'The Final War', Washington D.C. Was rebuilt in grand style, the National Mall which stretched from the Capital Building to the Lincoln Memorial was converted into the two mile long Memorial walk. Instead of being an open space that had so long been taken up by protestors and demonstrations, the Memorial Walk was turned into a monument to all the US military war dead in the Hundreds of Years of existence of the US. The Two mile stretch featured a series of memorials to the many wars and conflicts that saw the sacrifice of American lives. Then, with the first alien races joining the USS, along the edges of the Memorial Walk statues were erected, each one of the various member races of the United States. Thousands lined the edges of the Walk, each one a silent tribute to those who had served in the armed forces of the US and sacrificed their lives to protect it. In front of each of these statues stood a living example of each race, each one a member of the 1st Capital Ceremonial Division.

At the end of the walk in front of the US capital building, a simple pedestal with an inscription on it that rested before a US flag that always stood at half staff;

'Far too many have died for this nation to exist for us to forget them.'

On either side of the Memorial Walk were expanses of simple open land, that was there as a replacement for the National Mall, protests, supporters and what have you had gathered there for Millennia to make their voices heard to the senators and Congressmen, and the president. But none had ever stepped on the Memorial Walk to protest, for anyone who walked on that strip of ground knew that it was hallowed ground, dedicated to the memories of fallen soldiers who had willingly given their lives for their country.

Washington was a city that teemed with life, stretching from what had been New York city, to old Atlanta, and even east to Ohio, Washington was a reborn Megalopolis, filled with native humans and immigrants from across the Galaxy, politicians, military leaders and corporate executives filled the massive sprawling city that had become the heart of the United Stellar States. Much of old Washington remained as it was over 8,000 years prior, the massive sprawling city rose up from the outskirts of the city, leaving a strange sunken portion of urban landscape amongst the towering monoliths that had risen up. The city was sliced through by monorails and highways, and the airways were paced with individual aircraft. But in the skies of old Washington, the airways were clear and open, preserving the ancient appearance of the city...

Normally they were empty.

Now, formations of _Richtoffen _Areospace Force Mobile Suits arched through the air in formation over the heads of spectators that packed roof-tops and portable grand-stands, the massive, four story tall humanoid mobile suits had deactivated their reactive camouflage and glinted black in the daylight, US flag and unit insignia signified them as the Rodian 101st Mobile Suit Division. A tribute to the President that had been observed for centuries, it was tradition for the President's old Military unit to be present on the 4th if possible. _Tripoli_ pattern Mobile Suits from the US Marine Corps stood in formation, the towering monoliths standing on either side of the Memorial Walk, their Ultra-Dense combat blades held to their suit shoulders, much as marines with dress swords would stand.

This sight alone was imposing, seeing row after row of imposing mobile suits standing at attention and flying overhead. But there was more to this awesome display of force. The stand that held the President and other guests was on the stairs of the old US Capital building, and before it marched a seemingly endless stream of rank and file troops from the most ordinary Humanoid trooper in his mottled woodland camouflage armor, to the strongest Yaujta in his tank-like Heavy Assault armor, they marched in perfect formation by the stands, saluting the assembled leaders as they did so with parade ground precision. Interspaced with them were formations of M102 Washington tanks, and M901 Gustav APC's, driving along.

The display of strength from across the USS was awe inspiring for President Minnenedo, and he had fought along side many of these weapons of warfare. But for outsiders, some from the earliest days of the US, it was hard to fathom such military power. Those that surrounded him were speechless. He turned and looked around, reveling for a moment in the fact that he was surrounded by some of the greatest military and political leaders that this country had ever known, and smiled. But then he remembered that the Ambassador from the Sentient Coalition also sat in these stands, and he quickly banished his smile.

The Sentient Coalition was an unknown force for many in the USS that knew of it's existence. While the Political and military leadership of the USS had taken a long hard look at it's military and economic standing, and the potential for it to become an outright military threat to the US, a few, Minnendo in particular had looked at what the Coalition was, in it's entirety.

It was an empire. An empire whose territory was growing exponentially with each people they ran into and convinced of the Covenant threat, and while the Covenant threat was in no small way underestimated, the fact remained that many weak groups, and a few strong ones...had flocked to the Coalition and strengthened it. Even if they were weak before, they were a powerful force to be reckoned with, politically and militarily, even if their advantage was mainly due to numbers. Currently the Coalition was concerned with fighting the Covenant and winning that war.

President Minnenedo and others had begun to have suspicions about the demands being made of member groups. Even though the United Stellar States had maintained a fairly sizeable gap between Coalition forces, and their own military...the Coalition seemed determined to have complete control of any force that was fighting the Covenant. Which wasn't something that Minnenedo liked. American advisors were fighting along side Coalition forces, and the Coalition thought that entitled them to dictate just how US forces would be used.

But worse than that was a message that he'd received from the Coalition's governing body, stating that Sentient Coalition Peacekeeping Forces troops would be moved into US territory to...how did they put it?...'Ensure the stability of USS assets, owing to the need to fight the war with the Covenant'.

They wanted to do nothing short of circumvent the US political system for their own end.

And that was why President Minnenedo had a meeting with the Coalition Ambassador after the military display was over. He didn't want to have to sit down and have a frank discussion about USS soverenty, but unfortunately, the Sentient Coalition wasn't leaving him any options. He turned his head slightly and looked down the row of dignitaries, the human was from some small group that had quickly folded into the Coalition, and he seemed to take great pleasure in using his position to dictate to a Galaxy spanning nation. But right now, the massive display of force was beyond his petty dictates and proclamations, and orders thinly veiled as 'requests', and more importantly, it was a small example of how much more the US had than the Coalition had.

"How long have your forces possessed this kind of Weaponry Mr. President?" One of the delegates asked from behind him.

"Over eight thousand years. It's integrally reverse engineered from Mobile Suits we acquired during the Final War." Minnenedo said.

"Interesting, and how did you come upon these suits?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, national secrets and all that." Minnenedo replied.

"Ah, completely understandable. I hope they've been modified since then."

"Of course." Minnenedo replied, the questions ceased after that and the leaders resumed watching the display. All throughout the assembled US leaders murmurs and small discussions were being undertaken, most likely, all of them commenting on what they were seeing...for many it was the first time they had really seen such a variety of alien races in one place, let alone an Alien US president. Minnenedo nodded inwardly, such awe and disorientation would work towards his objective.

As the troops marched by below, Minnenedo stood and walked up to the podium that had the Presidential seal on it. He saluted the passing soldiers as he did so, and it was returned in full by the marching troops, and even mobile suits as they passed.

"Again, I greet you my fellow Americans." President Minnenedo said, addressing the many cameras and other recording devices that focused in on him. Once more his voice and words were being projected to the galaxy at large.

"I know that my words last night concerned many of you. And they should rightly so, the Covenant Hegemony is a titanic threat to the safety and security of this great nation. Even if our Naval forces demolished their assault on our home solar system last night, the fact remains that they are a very real threat to our safety, and the safety of others. As you can see, around me sit many leaders that you have only read about in history books or seen in documentaries. I assure you that you are not hallucinating, they are real." Minnenedo said, pausing for dramatic effect.

"Just as the Covenant come from another Galaxy, so do these leaders, Presidents that are from American nations that are vastly different from our own, but that all share one singular uniting factor, they are all Americans. They all love their countries as much as I love ours, but they are not a well equipped to defend them as we are. That is why these great leaders have come here, for the protection of their homelands."

"I, and many other political and military leaders have been working with these fragmented nations and peoples to unify ourselves to defend American lives. To that end, it has been agreed that we shall form a great alliance, the United Americas..." Minnenedo said, and was interrupted by a startled cry from the Coalition ambassador. A murmur of shock ran through the crowd, not at the statement of alliance, but at the interruption.

"...this alliance will work together to defend our peoples and promote the well-being and development of our nations." Minnenedo said, noting that the Coalition Ambassador had stood and walked out of the stands, trailing behind him were his bodyguard.

"While we must work with our common friends the Sentient Coalition, we must remember that this great nation has never sacrificed it's own self interest for those of another. While our forces fight along side Coalition troops, we must remember that they fight to defend America first and foremost. The Coalition does not see it this way, they see the need for defending their Coalition first, and individual forces second. From what I have learned in recent months about the war with the Covenant, they seem to be very willing to sacrifice millions of lives and hundreds of planets to the Covenant to gain time to defend their vital worlds. Millions die to defend Coruscant, while billions are sacrificed on thousands of worlds that have been abandoned."

"I cannot willingly do as they ask and give the military forces of these United States to a command galaxies away, abandon US worlds to an invading force, and allow civilians to be brutalized. Nor can I willingly give up the choices and decisions of the US people to further their own goals. I cannot let foreign troops stand on US soil and dictate to us what our best course of action, I cannot allow foreign forces to keep our nation secure when we have no need for it. I cannot, and I will not!" Minnenedo said.

"Nor will these leaders allow such a thing to happen, they shall be our allies and friends, not another tally mark or lump of bodies to be fed into the Covenant Meat grinder. We stand together, as Americans in the face of an intractable foe that wishes our extermination, and we shall fight. We shall fight for every inch of ground, fight for every planet, defend every system and battle the Covenant to defend every life we can, American or otherwise. Not since the times before the Final War has the USS stood up and so bodily worked to fight for the rights and lives of others. We have done so within our own galaxy, but now the time has come for the United States, and these United Americas to fight for hundreds of thousands of Galaxies and do what is right and true."

"Remember the words on that podium...'Far too many have died for this nation to exist for us to forget them.'" Minnenedo said, pointed a sucker tipped finger at the flag blowing at half staff and the small raised podium before it. We will never forget that, now, more Americans are dying, to defend this nation and others. I cannot say how long this war will last, but we must remember that no matter how long and terrible it is, that it must be seen through to the end."

"Freedom isn't free, Slavery is." Minnenedo said quite simply. From around him, the assembled leaders erupted in applause, and from all around him, he heard the cheers, solemn, but there. Americans had never willingly gone to war, but when they did, they won.

* * *

**Earth 1984-2323-1776, United Stellar States Homeworld,**

**Washington D.C., The White House, Oval Office,**

**July 4th, 2554 UST, 1700 Hrs**

"Mr. President, President Minnenedo, the Coalition Ambassador is here to see you." An aide said, standing in the doorway to the secretary office. His double comment of president was necessary, for he was speaking with three other US presidents at the moment, President Theodore Roosevelt, President Abraham Lincoln, and President Franklin Roosevelt. The four were discussing the finer points of the Alliance that had begun, and were expecting to be free of interruptions...but the Coalition Ambassador was going to have some choice words to say about the speech that Minnenedo gave earlier. Probably very combative words.

"I see. Gentlemen, if you would excuse me, I do hate to break up our discussion, but it is important that I speak with this ambassador immediately, neither he...nor his superiors will be pleased with my remarks earlier." Minnenedo said. The three historic figures left after a few short words and handshakes. Minnenedo sighed and sat down behind his desk.

"Bring him in." He said, sticking his finger tips onto the desk top and pulling them off slowly. The aide nodded and vanished quickly, the Coalition ambassador replacing him quickly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing! You have no right to banter around accusations of that sort in any way!" The ambassador said angrily.

"Sit down Mr. Kimbuto." President Minnenedo said.

"I'll stand." Kimbuto said.

"As you wish. And I have every right to banter around those accusations, mainly because every single one of them is true." Minnenedo said.

"You're a member of the Coalition, and such statements are treason. If you-" Kimbuto started, but was cut off by Minnenedo, who had risen from his chair and towered over the shorter Ambassador, even from behind his desk.

"If I what? Exercise the right that every American citizen has to speak the truth freely? I have a duty ambassador, you had best remember that duty is to _my_ people, _not yours._"

"The hell it is."

"Yes, the hell it _is._ I swore an oath to serve the American people and protect and defend the constitution. You had better get it into your thick skull that American lives are my primary concern, and everything else is secondary to that. Fighting the Covenant is my concern, and it shall be my concern until it is finished."

"You're a Coalition member, and incase you didn't realize, that means you abide by the Coalition. You've already flouted Coalition mandates rather boldly, and we haven't come down on you for it. You'd best remember that you're not the one calling the shots, the Sentient Coalition leadership is." Kimbuto said arrogantly.

Minnenedo was shocked. This little petty administrator was dictating to a US president.

"In case you haven't gotten it through your head, the United Stellar States are not Coalition members." Minnenedo said.

"Bullshit, you signed the Articles of the Coalition, you're a member and you'd better damn well abide by the rules that have been set, before the SCPKF gets sent in here to make sure that you do." Kimbuto said, confident that such a threat was enough to silence the US president.

"Are you threatening me? Are you threatening this country?" Minnenedo said slowly.

"No, I'm giving you a friendly warning." Kimbuto said gazing at the Rodian imperiously. Minnenedo returned the gaze.

"The USS is not a member of the Coalition, as of this moment." Minnenedo said.

"W-W-What?" Kimbuto sputtered.

"You are now persona non-gratis, your diplomatic status is revoked. All United Stellar States forces will be returned to United Americas territory." Minnenedo said.

"You can't do that. And I urge you to re-consider that." Kimbuto said, regaining his swagger and arrogance.

"I just did." Minnenedo said, giving the ambassador the hint that he should leave.

He didn't take it.

"You can't withdrawal, you signed the Articles of the Coalition, and they don't allow for secession. You're in, for good." Kimbuto said.

"I beg to differ."

"Beg all you want, the SCPKF will come in he-" Kimbuto began to rant, but was cut off.

"Our military dicks are bigger than yours. Be it your vaunted 'SCPKF' or Army...or even your NEXTGen Spartans." Minnenedo said and shocked Kimbuto into silence. "We have better technology, larger numbers, better training, more industrial capacity and a far better mindset towards warfare than you or any member of your Coalition has. You haven't been seeing military units fighting with your forces, those were advisors...and below average in technology and training."

"What?"

"From the first moment we spoke with your leaders, the US was wary of your Coalition. You weren't a militant theocracy like the Covenant, but you were undertaking your own expansion. Expansion that stemmed from fear of smaller nations binding together to fight a larger one. One that they thought to be evil and horrific. I've seen the reports of your use of Chemical, Biological, and Superweapons against the Covenant...primarily and overwhelmingly against civilian targets." Minnenedo said.

"It's war." Kimbuto said.

"Yes, I know, and we have our own weapons of mass destruction. Deterrent forces but capable just the same. US doctrine prohibits their first use on any civilian populations. To do so is in gross violation of the rules of warfare. No matter how small a gesture it is, it shows that we are better than our foes." Minnenedo said.

"What about Reach and Harvest? What about all the civilians the Covenant murdered?" Kimbuto said, with the tone of triumph.

"You made yourselves no better than them when you thought that murdering civilians avenged the deaths of others."

"How dare you..."

"How dare I? I don't dare ambassador, I have. Your Coalition has proven itself no better than the Covenant. I wonder just how long it will take before you begin your own military expansion...you already wield your SCPKF like a secret police, rooting out dissenting elements and crushing forces that want to leave your alliance when they have disagreed." Minnenedo said.

"Lies..."

"What about the Tollan? What about the Tok'ra? What about the Russian Federation? What about the Romans? What about the Confederacy? What about the Chinese Dominion? What about the Federation? All spoke very critically of Coalition practices for one reason or another, the Tollan didn't want to share technology, the Federation strongly objected to the use of Superweapons, the Romans vocally opposed the Coalition practice of stripping native troops from a galaxy and shipping them across the universe. What are they doing now? They're all quiet. And from what the CIA and NSA tell me, there were large movements of SCPKF forces before these groups became docile and quiet little members, that now agree with all the orders handed down by High Command and your 'Select Committees'."

"You throw around some serious accusations." Ambassador Kimbuto said.

"Yes I do, and they need to be said. The USS will not allow itself to be made into a pawn Ambassador. We won't allow US forces to die, and allow US worlds to be destroyed so you can protect your precious Coalition.

"Lies, more lies you spout off to sound justified in abandoning the Coalition. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good..."

"If you sacrifice your soul to save your life, do you really live?" Minnenedo said. Kimbuto glared at the Rodian.

"What must be done must be done."

"If what must be don means that Americans die futily then it must not be done. Your coalition has proven that it is more than willing to do what must be done at the expense of others. I will not allow you to use this nation like some street whore. And if your leadership thinks that it can batter us into submission with your SCPKF and NEXTGen Spartans, then I shall tell you now, not one single American shall docily stand by. They shall not be servants or slaves, to the Covenant or the Coalition, they'll fight, and the roadways will be covered in the dead, yours and ours." Minnenedo said.

"You shall make your entire nation pay." Kimbuto said.

"If you keep threatening me, you won't leave this office alive."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Yes I am." Minnenedo said, sitting back down.

"The SCPKF will drag you out of this office and throw you into the Spice Mines of Kessel." Kinbuto said and turned, leaving the office behind. Minnenedo turned and again, looked out the windows, just as he had done less than a day ago after he had proclaimed the existence of the Coalition and the Covenant. And just as he had done, he wondered what another of those great American presidents would have done in his shoes.

And Minnenedo knew, deep in his heart...they'd have done the exact same thing.

* * *

**Filmar IV, Sentient Coalition High Command,**

**Office of the Commander of the Armies, 22 Miles Beneath the Planets surface,**

**July 13th, 2554 UST, 0900 Hrs**

Sector General Complin looked at the briefing reports, once more seated in his office. The room was as dark as it normally was, lit only by the floor to ceiling windows behind his desk and the holographic war map on one wall. He took some small solace in knowing that the Covenant advance had stalled very suddenly. Whether it was from the brutal battles of Coruscant, or the massive WMD and Superweapon strikes being leveled against Covenant rear areas, he wasn't sure. But it was progress, even if nearly one million beings were dying every day in the streets of Coruscant. But Complin wasn't reading about that, he was reading a report that he had never expected to have to receive.

It had been sent from the recently formed committee entitled 'The Select Committee on Domestic Tranquility'. Which had the control over the SCPKF, and other internal police and security forces. Complin had been very opposed to the SCPKF when it was a military enforcement and unification organization. But he had objected even more strongly when it had been turned into a security force...with equipment and troops that made it almost as strong as the Army. Complin had thought the shift odd, but it had proven useful when a series of minor rebellions and attacks on Coalition forces had broken out when what had supposedly been member nations sided with the Covenant. SCPKF units had proven adequate in dealing with the Covenant sympathizers, and remarkably well placed as well.

Complin ceased his protests, as did General Calarathi, the only other fellow member of the New Republic military on the High Command staff.

The Tiger-like Trianni Special Forces General sat across the desk from him, tail flicking around as he read the files.

"I don't like this General." Calarathi said, not looking up from the file.

"What is there to like?" Complin said, resting the file on the desk top, and reaching for his Rodian Vodka.

"They want Coalition Army units to be placed under SCPKF control to prepare to contain the United Stellar States." Calarathi said.

"Well, if they are supporting the Covenant, we can't very well expect them to be peaceful about it, can we?"

"It seems to be very odd though, I haven't met many USS troops, but they all seem to be very intent on the fact that they believe in democracy and want to help the Coalition. Why would they perpetrate such an extensive deception?"

"Surprise. As near as I can think, they've withdrawn all their forces from Coalition space. That's strange though if they want to launch a sneak attack." Complin said, Calarathi nodded.

"Yes...but we have our orders and orders are orders. We've got to do as the SCPKF needs if they're going to stop the USS from turning against us. You've seen the map and we can't afford that kind of opponent sitting at our rear." Complin said grimly. He looked at the map again, the intermixed blue of the Coalition and Red of the Covenant now shared space with purple, a large swath that represented the United Stellar States and it's United Americas. The purple was Complins choice, since the true intent of the USS wasn't entirely clear. The reports made statements of the 'possibility' of the USS siding with the Covenant.

"No we can't. But I just wonder about what the USS's intent is." Calarathi said.

"What do you mean?" Complin asked.

"My wife Arriana said that the speech that this President Minnenedo gave was cut out a few words into it...static and bad connection. She never heard the whole speech. Neither did anyone else from what I'm told, the Holonet news only broadcast a summation of the speech that gave the jist of what was said, apparently very anti-Coalition and very pro-Covenant. Like something that the Emperor...or that Human Hitler or Stalin would have given, impassioned rhetoric."

"Well, we have the verbatim speech, he said that the 'Covenant was a shining light of hope and the Coalition was a dictatorship intent on crushing all life and spirit in the galaxy'. Damn lies, and you know it." Complin said, pouring out some vodka and offering it to Calarathi, the Trianni refused as he always did, he was a religious fanatic and a half, and chose not to poison himself with Alcohol.

"Yes...but we never hear him say it...just the brief."

"What's your point?"

"President Minnenendo made a drastic shift from being Pro-Coalition to being venomously anti-Coalition...in a very short time...overnight actually. It's just like the Federation leaders and those other factions. They turned into violent, lunatic dictators overnight and wanted to fight alongside the Covenant. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit...at all..." Calarathi said, but stopped talking as the door to the office opened. Both Generals turned to look at door and saw four SCPKF soldiers walk through the entrance.

They looked dangerous and imposing. All were over six feet tall, and seemed to bulge out from their uniforms owing to extremely developed muscle mass. Each wore a stark black uniform from head to toe, maintained with drill team precision. Their slacks and sleeves were creased and devoid of so much as a stray thread. Their black mid calf boots were shined to a mirror finish. Even their helmets were polished to a black mirror shine. They wore black plate armor over their torsos that stretched from throat to groin, and even had shoulder armor plates. The segmented armor was matte black and didn't shine any more than their cloth uniforms. Each had a series of small ribbons and medals on the left side of their chest, each soldier was festooned with a different selection of the 'fruit salad' ribbons marking them as personal accomplishments rather than merely show.

On the right shoulder of each of the guards a white and gold patch was in place. The snow white stood out brightly on the black, and the very sharp, almost blade like 'SC' in gold bracketed by silver actually glittered in the light. On each trooper's left shoulder was a single straight gold bar, a rank insignia, this was above another patch. It was roughly triangular, green and gold borders went around a central image in vivid color. A flag that appeared to be clutched in a black armored hand, this had a miniature White-Gold 'SC' tattered and torn, apparently by combat. Around the border of this image was minute lettering. It was in a series of markings in Forerunner, but if translated it would have read 'Peace is worth the price'. Above all this was the acronym 'S.C.P.K.F.'. Each had a sidearm on their right thigh, strapped into a black leather holster that was also gleamed in the light, with what looked to be four small clips affixed to it as well. On each man's left thigh were six cylinders in black webbing, each a clip for the M21 Gauss Rifles each of the troopers carried.

From behind these four, another trooper marched, wearing a black beret adorned with the SCPKF patch in it. None of the soldiers saluted the two Generals in the room.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Complin demanded.

"We would appreciate if you came with us General. Both of you." The SCPKF trooper said, raising his sidearm and pointing it at the pair of officers, the other six leveled their rifles. Calarathi growled, but the sight of six troopers with M21 gauss rifles silenced him quickly. Complin snarled, but obeyed, standing slowly and moving with his cane. He gimped along towards the SCPKF troopers, Calarathi behind him. They weren't idiots, they gave the two soldiers space as they passed through the doorway. Complin noted that his secretary and guards were gone, replaced by several more black garbed troopers.

"What is the meaning of this?" Complin demanded again.

No on responded to him as they marched the generals out of the office and down the corridors. More Black armored soldiers stood in the halls, in front of office doors and passages, blocking anyone from entering.

"What is the meaning of this?" A voice rang out. Complin and Calarathi looked and saw Grand Admiral Anjek standing in his anteroom, looking out past the SCPKF guard.

"Traitors sir, they've been placed under arrest and are being moved to detention for security reasons." The guard said.

"By the Emperor, what load of sith is this?" Anjek demanded.

"Sorry sir, I can't say any more." The trooper replied. Complin gazed at his cousin, and twitched his head imperceptibly. Anjek stared back and inclined his head. The procession of troopers walked on, leading the New Republic officers towards one of the lifts.

The pair were put inside, along with four guards, the other SCPKF troops piled into the other lifts. In unison the lifts descended, rapidly dropping beneath the main levels of High Command, and heading for areas that were only labeled as being 'off limits'.

"What is going on? Treason? You can't be serious!" Calarthi said, and was met with the butt of an M21 in the small of his back. The Trianni snarled and became silent. The lifts halted and doors opened, into a series of passages that lacked the aesthetics of the higher levels, they appeared to be carved from rock. Two troopers roughly applied magna-cuffs to the New Republic Generals and they were again led silently though the twisting passages and tunnels. Although now it was much more violently, with shoves being applied with rifle butts.

"Treason. That's right. You are doubting what needs to be done for the greater good of the Coalition, and that is no better than aiding the Covenant...treason." One of the troopers said. Complin glanced back at the SCPKF trooper who had spoken, his face was twisted into one of disgust. Complin blinked and glared back before being shoved again. This time, hard enough so that he and Calarathi were pitched into a chamber off one of the tunnels. Several guards filed in, M21 rifles lowered, but the rest stayed outside in the corridor.

"What are the grounds for these charges?" Calarathi growled, standing up. He was intimidating, even if you were holding an M21, and he was restrained. The Trianii stood over seven feet tall and right now had his claws out and teeth bared.

"I don't need to give grounds, you are well aware of your high crimes. As such you are subject to summary execution, which shall be..." The trooper trailed off, hearing the unmistakable sound of weapons fire from the hall. The four troopers turned slightly at the noise.

"Storm Commandos! The Grand Admiral turned traitor too!" One of the SCPKF troopers outside shouted.

"Kill them!"

But the SCPKF troopers didn't have time. Calarathi was a veteran of many battles, rising to his station not only by being an exemplary soldier, but being a vicious combatant. He had lunged forward, claws slashing into the chest of the SCPKF trooper, and the sheer force of his body crushing the soldiers ribcage into his spine as he hit the wall.

The other three turned their weapons, but too slowly. Calarathi kicked out with a clawed foot, gouging out the face of another trooper in one motion, then slamming his bound hands into the neck of a third, breaking it with a sick snap. The fourth soldier had turned his weapon and was shooting from the hip, in his panic even the advanced targeting systems on his M21 doing him no good. Before he could sight in his weapon, General Complin brought his heavy grell wood cane slamming into the troopers trachea and crushed it. He fell to the floor flopping around like a fish before dying.

Calarathi finished the soldier with a gouged face as he screamed wetly, then removed his binders.

"General Calarathi, General Complin, Grand Admiral Anjek sent us to retrieve you sirs." A filtered voice said from the doorway. The blue-armored head to toe form of an Imperial Storm Commando stood there, his blaster rifle held to his shoulder at the ready.

"First time I've been glad to see one of you." Calarathi said.

"We try sir. Although I suggest we get out of here. The SCPKF isn't going to like this." The Commando said.

"What is going on here?" Complin asked, picking up an M21 and ammunition.

"We don't know sir. The Grand Admiral sent us after you and ordered us to kill the SCPKF troopers. He also called all New Republic and Imperial troops to defensive positions throughout the base. He also sent a message to all New Republic and Imperial forces throughout the Coalition, although I can't be sure of what that message was." The Commando explained, leading the pair of Generals out into the hall. The other twenty or so SCPKF guards were lying on the floor, the other five Storm Commandos dragging them into lines on the rock floor.

"A coup'de'tat." Calarathi said. Complin looked at the bodies and had to agree with the Trianii.

"But who is throwing the Coup? The SCPKF against the government, Anjek against the Coalition, or Anjek against the SCPKF?" Complin asked slowly. The Storm Commando looked at him from mirrored eyepieces.

"I don't know, sir."

"Either way, we're needed up in the main levels, and I'm more inclined to follow the man that saved us than the ones that tried to kill us." Calarathi said. Complin nodded in reply and followed along with the Trianii and the Storm Commandos, completely sure that no matter what happened, the Coalition would never be the same.

* * *

**Earth 1984-2323-1776, United Stellar States Homeworld,**

**Washington D.C., The White House Situation Room,**

**July 20th, 2554 UST, 0209 Hrs**

President Minnenedo sat in his robe at the half circle conference table, slightly cursing the neatly attired and well groomed officers that sat around it. He'd been asleep two minutes ago, and was still blinking the fatigue out of his eyes. But when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs wakes you at three in the morning, you don't hit the snooze button.

"Mr. President, we've been detecting large movements of Coalition forces along our borders for the past few days. Given the overall level of military readiness that we've maintained since the fourth, we didn't consider it a threat. But now, matters have changed." General Dachande said, he gestured to the hologram and it changed to the Galactic view Minnenedo was familiar with. It showed US territory, and also Coalition territory hedging up against it.

"There are several large fleets that appear ready to move against our outlying systems. We haven't managed to get a full intelligence appraisal of what they are made up of, but we are sure that these are SCPKF forces. No regular Coalition Army or Navy units are in them." Dachande said.

"I see. So you believe them to be preparing an invasion. Do you have any intel on support forces?" Minnenedo asked.

"That's one of the factors that made us pause sir, there aren't any regular army units or logistical units preparing to move in support. And given the scale of an invasion of our space it would require more resources than their SCPKF forces have access to, even combined. Now we can be sure that their forces aren't so arrogant as to assume that they could defeat us with just a few million troops and a few thousand ships. We're concerned though, forces of that size could cause considerable disruption to our infrastructure, and tie up forces that are far better used against the Covenant." Dachande said.

"How long before they prepare to move?"

"It's believed that they will move within the week sir, although exact estimates vary as to when, we will see their forces begin to move."

"How big a danger is this to us?"

"In the grand scheme of things, an annoyance sir, but the fact is that they will attack and cause considerable damage until they are stopped."

"Recommendations?" Minnenedo asked.

"I recommend a first strike sir, send the 198th Expeditionary Fleet to destroy them now and send a clear message to them." General Dachande said.

"Given the information that we're getting from Coalition space, I am inclined to agree with you. The coup that is going on has yet to be resolved and if these are SCPKF forces, we need to destroy them. Especially if the SCPKF is the rogue faction in the coup." Minnenedo said.

"Do we have a go ahead sir?" Dachande asked.

"Yes General." Minnenedo said.

Dachande nodded to one of the aides and he rushed off to begin issuing orders.

"General, I want plans made for a counter-attack into Coalition space." Minnenedo said. General Dachande looked back at the President.

"Sir?"

"If this coup'de'tat being thrown by the SCPKF isn't defeated by the forces of...Grand Admiral Anjek, the New Republic and the Empire...we need to prepare for the fact that the Coalition will regard us as a serious threat. Especially since we are refusing to knuckle under to SCPKF demands. I think the only way we can hope for peace is to topple the Coalition and take the SCPKF out of power, should they seize control." Minnenedo said.

"Yes sir. How long will you give until you are willing to commit military force to topple the SCPKF?"

"September 1st."

"Yes sir, we'll begin planning immediately."

* * *

And Chappie...

Stay tuned for Chapter 12: _Coup' and Counter Coup'_

Coming to a fanfiction website near you soon!


	14. Chapter 12: Coup and Counter Coup

On with the show.

Oh, BTW, if there are any artistically inclined individuals reading FFH and interested in some freelance...emphasis on the _free_ part... work for the series, please contact me.

And I did put up a forum for FFH, only Thug-4-Less has found it, I believe, but it's up as a source of input from you (readers) to me, and answering questions that you might have.

(...and if anyone notices, I was feeling a little silly once or twice while I was writing this chapter...)

(...RedvsBlue...)

* * *

Millions die every day, if not every hour, on the streets and in the alleys of Coruscant, hundreds of ships are vaporized in fleet actions over planets and stars that have no name. Billions of civilians are murdered with Chemical, Biological, Nanological and Superweapons in the blink of an eye. 

Other factions rise against the Coalition, from the Orks and Necrons, to Antarans, Harvesters, the elusive Eldar/Protoss union, and even the Borg...all while the sinister threat that destroyed the Forerunner Alliance looms somewhere in the universe.

The Coalition struggles to unify itself in the face of strife and conflict, both from it's military and political leadership.

The USS faces enemies on all fronts, Sentient Coalition, Imperium of Mankind, the Borg. But with the help of unlikely allies amongst their fellow nations.

And within the Imperium of Man, strange technology gives them the possibliity of finding rare and fragile thing in their galaxy, something that has been lost for eons...

...hope.

* * *

Chapter 12: _Coup and counter Coup._

"The people find it easier to believe a big lie than a little one."

-Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Third Reich

"I'm Jake Featherston, and I'm here to tell you the truth..."

-Jake Featherston, President of the Confederate States of America

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

-Abraham Lincoln

* * *

**Coruscant, July 9th, 2554 UST**

It seemed as though every single minute, the surface of Coruscant was being dug deeper from shellfire, and explosions ranging from grenades to megaton yeild nuclear weapons. The megalapolis of Coruscant had been reduced to rubble, systematically and thuroughly ground down to it's surface, a surface that hadn't been seen by the universe at large for hundreds...even thousands of years. In eight days an area that on many worlds would cover a continent had been leveled. Ground down, vaporized, toppled and wrecked beyond recognition. Towers of transperisteel and Dura-cerete had been knocked from the heavens by weapons whose power had not been dreamt of by their builders. Sheer mountains of rubble covered a landscape that was miles of craters, shell holes and cut with trenches, wolf holes and bunkers. The once, mostly clear skies that had been normal for Coruscant had been replaced with an unrelenting haze of gray and black from smoke, soot and dust.

Eight days, and 380 Billion people were dead. Civilian and Soldier, Coalition and Covenant were dying in droves. Bodies weren't buried or tended to, they simply lay where they had been killed. Fields of corpses that were 20, even 30 bodies deep were common place in some areas. M90 GPGC's could create mounds of thousands of bodies as Conscripts would hurl themselves into the fields of fire. Plasma bombardments could simply vaporize apartment buildings filled with thousands. Nuclear landmines and grenades, Chemical weapons, Nano-bombs, Bio-terminator weapons...indiscriminate killers. Dueling SCM-1 tanks, AT-ATs and Covenant tanks, Scarabs and Mobile suits would decimate the urban landscapes as they fought, uncaring of who they buried as they fought. Hundreds of square kilometers of ground could be as silent as death itself, no living soul moving, becasue of death or fear of snipers that stalked the rubble, waiting.

Jedi, Spartans, New Republic Troops, and Coalition soldiers fought and died just as often as their Covenant opposites, their bodies ignored as the slaughter wore on.

Overhead, Covenant ships fought in orbit with the New Republic fleet, starships and crews being oblitereated in heartbeats as Blaster Cannons and Plasma emplacements fired endlessly, iluminating the nightside of Coruscant in a sick semi-twilight. Each fleet vying for control of space, trying to cut the other armies off from supply. Covenant and Republic pouring forces into the battle, from mindless Conscripts to Battle hardened Paladins...along with Republic and Imperial troops...

Bloody stalemate, every second it wore on, hundreds of thousands died on the ground and in orbit.

And they fought on.

Regardless of the death, they fought on.

* * *

**Imperial Capital world, Bastion,**

**Office of the Superme Commander of the Empire.**

**July 14th, 2554 UST, 1003 Hours**

Supreme Commander Pellaeon was a busy man. He had been a busy man since Endor. He'd been a busy man when Grand Admiral Thrawn had returned. He'd been a busy man when the Yuuhuzan Vong had attacked. And now he was an even busier man still with what the ISB considered to be the largest Covenant offensive of the war aimed at taking Coruscant. Even if he was Supreme commander and had Moffs, Generals, and Admirals co-ordinating one of the largest military operations this side of the Rebellion...it was still costing him sleep.

"Supereme commander, I have a message from Grand Admiral Anjek on Filmar IV." A Stormtrooper said, stepping through the entrance to his private office. Pellaeon looked up from the flimsplast sheets he'd been reading and nodded.

"Put it through to my holonet console." He said, the Stormtrooper saluted and left. Pellaeon turned in his chair to face the Grand Admiral as his image came to life on the holo projector.

"Greetings in haste Supreme Commander. I'm sending you this message because the unthinkable has happened. Just over an hour ago, SCPKF forces attempted to arrest and execute Sector General Complin and General Calarathi on the charges of High Treason. I know these claims to be false, but they have proved my suspicions were true about the SCPKF. My ISB agents on Filmar IV had uncovered information that led me to believe that the Peackeepers had been made into an enforcement arm for the Commitee on Domestic Tranquility. From what I've gathtered, the three members of this commitee are using the SCPKF to eliminate the possiblity of revolt against their power. They're trying to take over the Coalition, I don't know who I can trust beyond the Imperial and New Republic Forces, and I urge you to do the same. I believe that many of the so called 'Covenant Sympathizers' merely were too vocal in opposing this trimultaive in the Commitee. Consider any and all SCPKF Forces that Imperial Troops come into contact with to be potentially hostile. I'll do what I can to stop this before an overthrow can take place. Anjek out."

Pellaeon looked at the holo projector for a moment before his hand slapped against the button for his aide. The Colonel responded immedeately, entering the office through a concealed passage that allowed him to discreetly enter or exit as needed.

"Can we confirm the authenticity of this message?" Pellaeon snapped. As though he had known what the request would be, the aide handed the Imperial Commander a datapad.

"Without question sir, all codes and encryption match to the letter. That was Grand Admiral Anjek, and his message was authentic." The Colonel said. Pellaeon frowned and nodded slowly.

"Have all SCPKF troops within the Empire placed under arrest pending the outcome of the Grand Admiral's actions. And get me a holo-net line to President Fe'ly'a." Pellaeon said quickly. The Colonel nodded and darted from the room. The whizened Imperial commander looked back down at his desk, his eyes dancing acrost the flimsplasts before looking back to the holo-projector, the final image still frozen there. Pellaeon frowned. The Coalition had held so much promise, so much potential, it could have brought peace, not just peace and prosperity for the Empire and Republic, but peace for so many other enemies made allies in the universe.

Now what would happen...

"President Fe'ly'a is on the holo-net channel." A voice said from his desk comm. He turned and looked at the holo-proj as the image of the Bothan came into view. Even though he couldn't see the background of where President Fe'ly'a was, he knew that the Republic President was not in his Coruscant office, or anywhere close. He hadn't been there for some time now, and the best the Republic was willing to divulge in it's Holonet broadcasts was 'an undisclosed location'.

"What is it Supreme Commander Pallaeon?" Fe'ly'a snapped. The Bothan was not a person to deal with interruptions and inconvienences gracefully or easily, even if the interruption was from the leader of another Galactic Power.

"Grettings President Fe'ly'a," Pallaeon said, determined to retain some modicum of dignity and decorum. "I've just recived a message from Grand Admiral Anjek on Filmar IV. It seems as though the SCPKF is working to orchestrate a takeover of the Coalition." Pallaeon said gravely. He thought the pronouncement would elicit some kind of reaction, shock, suprise, something substantial...

"Your point Commander?" Fe'ly'a responded dryly. Pellaeon was almost taken aback...almost. Years of trying to wrangle Moffs and Admirals under control and hold the tatters of the Empire together nessecitated such control of one's emotions. These days he put them to use more in dealing with the Republic and it's representatives than with his own internal politicians.

"My _point_ is that Grand Admiral Anjek has taken control of all Imperial and New Republic Forces on Filmar IV and is working to try and halt the SCPKF from taking over. He advised me to consider any and all SCPKF units to be hostile until proven otherwise, I urge you to do the same." Pellaeon said. Borsk Fe'ly'a looked at something out of view of the Holo and then back to Pellaeon.

"I dare say that such actions would be unadviasble."

"What? _What?_ The SCPKF tried to execute two of your Generals, Complin and Calarathi, on the grounds that they were commiting treason. _Treason_ President Fe'ly'a. Anjek is working to try and stop this Coup and halt this take over. I don't know about your motives, but the loss of soverinty by the Empire to any outside power will not stand. Mr. President, I know that our forces stood along side eachother over Ithor against the Vong, and now stand together against the Covenant, fighting side by side on Coruscant to stop their advance, to halt their grinding forward momentum. Stormtroopers and Army troopers are dying for citizens of the New Republic, here in our own galaxy and in others. I think that a commitment of such magnitude would warrant more colaboration than that." Pallaeon said cooly.

"I did not say that collaboration would be un-called for, but merely stated that it would be unadvisable to turn on the SCPKF at this time." Fey'ly'a said in reply, his tone as britle and cool as Hoth-ice. Pellaeon arched a gray eyebrow.

"What do you mean President?" He asked.

"Right now Coruscant needs every available unit to fight, and if I am not mistaken, the 10th SCPKF Infantry Division and other units were fighting there as we speak."

"True, so you suggest that we simply send every SCPKF unit we have to Coruscant, it's impractical for one thing and impossible for another." Pellaeon said.

"What do you mean, impossible? Impractical yes, but not impossible." Fe'ly'a asked.

"They don't answer to us President Fe'ly'a. They only answer to their own hirearchy and High Command. We don't have any control over them."

"Surely not."

"President Fe'ly'a, did you not read and understand the terms that we were dictated when the SCPKF units moved into our territory? They are here to 'ensure domestic tranquility. But the tranquility that they are here to ensure is not based on our standards, rather it is based on their own. The Trimultive that controls the SCPKF are their masters, they have no loyalty to us, and their loyalty to the Coalition is controled by the Trimultive. These troops were recruited from locations where their only options were starvation or service, and many of them see the Coalition as their only hope for doing something worthwile. They aren't loyal to their peoples or their nations. They are only loyal to the Coalition. That is are greatest threat that SCPKF units represent. They're better equiped and better trained than our own troops, and they have near fanatical motivation for their cause. They need to be isolated President Fe'ly'a, and quickly, before they have a chance to overthrow our own governments, and reduce our great powers to nothing more than puppet factions."

"Supreme Commander, they're already here." Fe'ly'a said. Pellaeon's eyes widened slightly as Fe'ly'a looked off the Holo-projector's screen once again and fidgeted. Supreme Commander Pellaeon began to open his mouth to begin to speak, but was cut off by the sounds of blaster fire seeping into his office from somewhere distant in the labarynthine corridors beyond the thick blast doors. From that concealed corridor Colonel Yeeves ran into the room, his sidearm drawn...and followed by eight crimson garbed members of the Imperial Royal Guards, forcepikes held at the ready.

"Supreme Commander, there are SCPKF troops attacking! You need to be moved immedeately!" The Colonel said as the Guardsmen marched forward, surrounding Pellaeon.

"President Fe'ly'a, the SCPKF will be stopped!" Pellaeon shouted before the Holo-projector was cut off.

* * *

**Filmar IV, Coalition High Command,**

**Primary Command Level,**

**July 13th, 2554, 1032 Hours UST**

"So what exactly is going on, Grand Admiral?" Sector General Complin asked, walking past the unresponsive Storm Commandos as they stood guard on either side of Anjek's doorway. The almost skeletal in appearance Imperial Grand Admiral looked up from a miniature spinning hologram of the Filmar IV passages and caverns that made up the bulk of the High Command area. Small red and green splotches moved through the minute corridors on the display. As Anjek looked up, the slight glow cast his features into sharp relief, giving his shaved head and hairless face the unmistakable appearance of a skull. His white Grand Admiral's uniform was pristine and spotless, the fabric almost glaringly bright in the simple office.

"Coup General Complin, a Coup 'de'tat of nefarious planning and rather poor ." Anjek said, a hint of sick humor creeping into his words. His expression was grim and hard, and his eyes darted back to the hologram.

"What's the situation?" General Calarathi said, slinging his appropriated M21 Rifle over one shoulder with pinkish staned paws.

"As you two were arrested SCPKF forces moved to place prominent and particularly capable forces under arrest or confinment to minimize their...capacity for trouble." Anjek said, his thin, spindly fingers danced over a control pad in his arm-rest and the tiny holo leapt into the air, making the schematics and battle plans readable to everyone in the room.

"Colonial Marines, Federation Hazard Troopers, Human Alliance Guard detachments, X-Com kill teams, the Jedi, State Alchemists...among others. They weren't sucessful. Most of them had been on edge prior to this due to...circumstances, or their own intelligence networks had warned them. The SCPKF weren't expecting any kind of resistance, so they were beaten back, unprepared, and ill-equiped, compared to who they were going up agianst. I dare say, they won't make the same mistake again." Anjek said.

"They're arming I take it?"

"Quickly, Mk. VII 'Merlin' Anti-Exotic armor, and Mk. V 'Grenadier' Assault armor with integral Blaster and plasma cannons. Loaded for bear, and probably pissed as hell for being held off by a bunch of 'lessers'."

"_They're _mad?" Complin said in a grumble.

"The SCPKF isn't the problem though." Anjek said, moving along, much of the tactical situation was being covered by lower ranks. New Republic and Imperial troops rushing though the corridors and passages, working to set up barricades and firing positions to hold off the SCPKF assault and hold onto what ground there was to hold onto. Even as they worked to defend, they also were moving to attack, to punch through the units encircling the various small garrisons and defenders that were working to hold off the storm of Coalition Peacekeepers.

"I think you're a little off in that assesment Grand Admiral." A voice said, filtered through a comm unit, but still with it's catlike deadly tone. It would have been hard for anyone to hide in the small, brightly lit office that had five people in it, two of which were clad in full armor and bearing sensor arrays designed to detect the un-detected. But for their sensors they didn't notice the intruder in the office for two reasons. One, it was a Noghri...two, it was a NEXTGen Spartan. Spartan -9421 had deigned to join the discussion. The elisuve representative of what some had called the greatest warriors in any history of any Galaxy.

And what some had called the most loyal soldiers as well...

Just who they were loyal to was up for debate at the moment.

The Noghri was crouched in a corner, hidden behind a broad-leaf plant and a bookshelf, it's cloaking engaged making it look more like a shimmer of a Yautja's cloak at such close range. The shimmering semi-mirage stood up and as it did, the cloak disengaged and in it's place stood the armored form of the Noghri. Deadly assasins by birth and training, and recruited into the ranks of the NEXTGen Spartans, their own innate talents had been honed and built upon by the almost Frankenstine like science that had been put to work at the Maw Base.

If 9421 still had a name, she never shared it with anyone, save fellow Spartans. The only insignia she had was 9421, and the small star cluster proclaiming her rank as 'Command-General' on the back of her helmet, custom created to fit her head, just like her armor was custom built to fit her form. She wore her assasin's blades openly, along with an SM-1 sidearm, but that was all...and more than enough to dispose of most of the Imperial Storm Commandos on this level. In unison, the commandos snapped up their blaster carbines, the gesture trained and drilled into them, but futile at best. Even at point blank range a blaster carbine couldn't hope to penetrate even the inner bio-glove of the armor, let alone the plate armor, undermesh and energy shielding.

In fact, had the Spartan wished them dead, she could have acomplished the feat before the body of the first killed fell to the floor.

"So what brings you here Spartan?" Anjek said, conversationally.

The green armor glittered in the light as she stood and walked around the desk, standing at one corner her polarized synth-diamond viewplate tilting back and forth. The Noghri seemed to be considering her options before speaking.

"Spartan -117 wishes to convey his displeasure and concern for the recent turn of events. And he also wishes to state that the Spartans are not involved." 9421 said.

"I guess we should consider that to be a small consolation." Calarathi said.

"Yes, we should consider that a great consolation general." Anjek said, and Calarathi arched an eyebrow before lowering it and nodding slowly. If the Spartans were on the same side as the SCPKF, there would be no stopping them.

"So what exactly is -117's take on the current turn of events?" Complin asked.

"Unfortunate." -9421 said with an air of religous proclimation.

"Unforutnate?" Complin repeated the word, turning it over within his mind.

"What exactly does he intend to do about this, _unfortunate_, event?" Calarathi asked.

"For the moment, he is not sure. Commander -117 has one objective. His fight is with the Covenant Hegemoany. It has been for a long time now, and he isn't interested in fighting against anyone who seeks to do the same. And he isn't intent on forging an empire for anyone who'd take advantage of a noble struggle for their own ends?" -9421 replied.

"Your words or his?"

"Mine...the Commander was slightly less eloquent about it."

"So the Spartans are remaining neutral?" Anjek asked.

"Yes, our fight is against the Covenant, as yours should be. We're not going to kill soldiers that would do the same. We don't want to." -9421 said.

"The Tribunal is the enemy -9421. Those three figures that have warped the objective and plan of the SCPKF." Anjek said, his hand holding a flimsplast file out to the Spartan.

"The Tribunal?" -9421 asked, taking the folder in one gauntleted hand, holding it with a delecacy that shouldn't have been capable by a hand clad in such layers of protection. The helmet cocked to one side before nodding slightly. The golden tinted viewplate sifted and gazed straight at Anjek before speaking; "This changes matters."

"From what the ISB tells me, they are not who they seem to be. I had Imperial Security check their backgronds within their perspective galaxies. They seem impressive, but their backgrounds lend themselves to one point...they're far too perfect to be who they claim to be." Anjek said.

"Kurrs, what exactly are you talking about?" Complin asked, accepting the offered file from -9421.

"The Imperial Security Bureau has a saying, no-one has nothing to hide. Their files loked perfect, every 'T' crossed, every 'i' dotted. Too perfect, and when it's too good to be true, it usually is. From what we drug up, these individuals are far beyond poor political material...they fall into the category of being two steps past evil." Anjek said grimly.

"Representative Zantos is more apt to be known as a character known as 'Kaine' leader of a group known as the 'Brotherhood of Nod'. A religous/political dictatorship that has been attempting to take over their homeworld through force. He is not a very nice character, and from what the ISB says, he's a master manipulator and deciver. I can't say exactly what compeled him to push for Universal domination when he could barely manage Global domination. But he's here, and one of the members of this Tribunal."

"Next, Representative Kirlant isn't a philanthropst, he's known simply as 'Yuri'. A psychic that was defeated in his own campaign to take over another planet. He was thought dead, several times, but he's turned up again, and is our headache now."

"Lastly...is a man called Soskap. Aparently that's the current alias he's using. We have nothing on him, at all. As far as the ISB can tell us he's harsh charater, but we haven't turned up anything on par with Yuri or Kaine. He's a mystery."

"I cannot fathom what could bring together these three beings, but they are together and are weilding the power of the entire SCPKF who they have managed to convince are working in the best interests of the Coalition, which is unfortuantely against our own interests." Anjek said. Complin and Calarathi looked up from the folder, their faces grim.

"Since this Yuri is capable of twisting perception, is it safe to assume that if we cut the head off the SCPKF that we'll take care of this power bid once and for all?" Complin voiced.

"This time." Anjek said.

"Admiral?" -9421 asked, turning to face the white garbed Grand Admiral.

"This time, how many represenatives are in the council, in the Senate, representing their worlds with their own agendas? Doing what is in the best interests of their factions, instead of their own planets, or even the Coalition as a whole." Anjek said with a sigh.

"But Grand Admiral, you forget something." -9421 said softly, the quiet in her voice enough to capture one's attention.

"Oh?"

"They're politicians, that's what they _do_." -9421 replied, the vaguest trace of a toothy smile in her voice, hidden behind the unmoving visage of her helmet.

"Then let us do what we _do_, win this battle so we can get back to the war that matters."

"I don't think that we'll be doing it though." Anjek said.

"What do you mean by that Kurrs?" Complin asked.

"Our troops can't go up against the SCKPF toe to toe. Unfortunately their gear is far too good. We can hold them off, but we need someone stronger than their forces to make a difference."

"Who's that?" Calarathi said.

"The United Stellar States."

* * *

**Filmar IV, Coalition High Command,**

**SCPKF Garrison Levels, Staging Area/Armory B-312,**

**July 13th, 2554, 1041 Hours UST**

The room wasn't a room per-se, it was a massive chamber that had been formed from some ancient geological process that had long since ended. The rough, blackish-green stone had been hewn and carved out, creating a smooth floor and walls, but after a few feet the rough edges returned, and vanished up into the darkness that still lingered high above. The chamber was enormous, filled with neatly ordered lines of weapons racks, armor stands and ammunition lockers, lain out in precice lines that stretched on for what seemed to be an endless distance, and with only a bare eigth of the entire armory lit, it did give the impression that the darkness that swallowed the visible lines of stored military hardware stretched on into oblivion.

Those aisles that stood between the stacks and racks of equipment had been filled scant moments before by the fill 10,000 soldier strong force of a SCPKF Light Infantry Division. Racing about like ants in an immense colony, forcing themselves to fit their bodies into the head to toe protection of 'Merlin' and 'Grenadier' pattern body armor and get their loadouts of weaponry in the few minutes they had to prepare themselves before they were briefed. Now those narow aisles stood empty, the equipment that had rested securely behind Zortium plating and mag-locked tumblers with DNA encoded locking mechanisms, stripped with the exact precision one would equate with locusts. M21 rifles, M19 sidearms, M40 and M90 GPMGC's, even the experimental M22 Assault Carbines, M25 Plasma assault Carbines, M31 Tesla Rifles, M43 Rad-guns and M29 Disruptor Infantry Weapons Systems had been removed from their stasis field locked homes, and now rested in the hands of elite troops, waiting to weild them not against forgien invader, be it Covenant, Borg, Antaran or Horde...but instead use them to cauterize a sickness that festered within the very Command of the Coalition military itself.

They stood in rows that were ceremony quailty precise. Clone troopers from the Grand Army of the Republic, or even Droid Seperatists couldn't match the precision that these troops had, focused down to the milimeter, they stood, silent and waiting. Neural links feeding their mission orders and information directly into their subconscious while they awaited their verbal mission briefing, as much a trigger for their sub-conscious briefing as it was for procedure to be observed. Their tinted synth-diamond faceshields were closed and opaqued, the faces of the SCPKF's elite troops veiled with the same anonymnity that Imperial Stormtroopers enjoyed. They waited, irregardless of how long or for what, they waited because that was how procedure went, that was what they were ordered to do.

Ahead of all 10,000 armored troopers was a single raised podium, whoever stood there would be standing above the heads of the armored soldiers, looking down at them. Holo-projectors on either side would accenuate the briefing, but right now the SCPKF's emblem merely spun, larger than a human, in the air over each. The red halo of light adding to the white glare of the overheads.

From one of the aisles a soldier strode out. It was genderless and faceless, encased in it's own suit of 'Jager-Panzer' command armor. The opaque viewplate didn't shift to examine the lines of soldiers, instead it faced straight ahead as the soldier walked, first up to the podium and then surmounting the flight of stairs up to it. As the soldier halted behind the waist high podium, a small holoprojector came to life and sent up a name and rank infront of the lectern. Johanna Starke, Brigadier General, 92nd Elite Light Infantry, SCPKF. From behind her, another holoimage came to life, this one, a thirty foot long by ten foot high replica of the Coalition's emblem/flag in gold.

In perfect unison the 10,000 soldiers that stood before her shifted their weapons and saluted. A heartbeat later, the Brigadier General returned the gesture.

"As of 1040 Hours, we have been ordeed by the Tribunal to undertake Operation Plan; Unrepentant Traitor. Operation objectives are to arrest Coalition High Command, Arrest or neutralize any opposition, Secure the Safety of the Senate and ensure the continued operation of the Coalition Government. 5th SCPKF Garrison Corps is undertaking this mission. Unit specific troop compositions are available through your neural link. 92nd's objective is to assault the High Command levels via the main transport hub in the area. 5th Assault Regiment leads the assault. Our orders are to arrest all members of High Command if possible. If not possible, do not waist your lives. I have been informed by Representative Soskap that we are to consider any Spartans seen to be hostile, they are to be terminated with the utmost prejudice."

If this was a shock, not a single soldier showed it.

"That is all." Brigadier General Starke said, stepping down from the podium.

* * *

**Filmar IV, Coalition High Command,**

**Office of the Tribunal, Administration levels,**

**August 5th, 2554, 1503 Hours UST**

There was no way to gague exactly how large or small the room was, the only light glared down into the center of a triangular table in the center. For some reason, the SCPKF valued the benifits of making sure that people didn't know just what the shadows held. The corona of light that was cast fell just short of the shadowy figures that sat at each corner, facing inward. The perimiter of the room was cloaked in black, hiding the armored SCPKF troopers that stood around the perimiter, mute guards for the Tribunal. The three representatives that sat around the table were virtually unknown to the members of the Coalition, and yet they were living legends on their own worlds.

Or perhaps living nightmares would be a better term.

"The SCPKF is doing their job well." One of the shadowed figures said as a small holo-map burst into illumination before them, the scant light cast by it not reaching the figures.

"Yes, the Chamber of Representatives is taken, and the members are being...protected all very well and with a minimum of casuilties." Another said.

"The Imperial and New Republic troops are causing us much constrination, they refuse to surrender."

"Then they will be killed Kaine. Plain and simple. We can do without such problematic groups after we have asserted 'stability'."

"Yes Soskap, such matters are of course in our best intrests, but I find myself being concerned about this message that was sent out just before the second offensive began. They appeared to be broadcasting to the USS territory that we know of. And if Ambassador Kimbuto's words are to be belived-"  
"They are."

"Thank you Yuri. As I was saying, their forces are quite formidable, and they are more than ready to go to war with the Coalition because of percived offenses." Kaine said softly.

"We have yet to undertake any offenses against them. And yet their forces are already mobilized for combat." Soskap said.

"They were paranoid enough to strike first actually. They smashed our forces mobilizing to invade their territory before we had a chance to strike." Kaine said.

"Most unfortunate." Yuri said quietly, his voice sounding weak.

"Most unfortunate, indeed! Those troops were some of the best we had, and if the USS is more wary of us than the Covenant, we have a serious problem to deal with, now don't we?" Soskap said angrily.

"Calm yourself Soskap. This is hardly the final motion of our play, now is it?" Yuri said.

"If the play has only one act then we are in trouble if we are doing poorly at the end of it." Kaine said gloomily.

"Thankfully, we are not doing poorly at all, as Soskap so eloquently said. We have merely experianced a setback. Our forces beyond this planet are well placed and equipped. And if the High Command can be severed, then none shall be the wiser. We merely need to eliminate the Joint Chiefs and then this Tribunal will take control of the full Coalition. Through, certain...unique means." Yuri said.

"We know the plan Yuri. We do not need to be reminded of it." Soskap growled.

"Calm down Soskap. Right now our primary problem is the USS, their capabilites are far beyond those of the Coalition as a whole. Even while they are bogged down fighting the Borg and the Imperium of Man, they still have copious assets to move against us and the Covenant. We cannot risk their involvment. Although thanks to Ambassador Kimbuto, we have already angered him...he's been, dealt with?" Kaine said calmly.

"Oh yes. He was severly...repremanded." Soskap said, an almost demonic expression twisting his face.

"Good. For what little it does, it is re-assuring to know the fool's indiscression was taken care of." Kaine said.

"The USS shall not be a problem for some time. It will take them months to reach Filmar IV, even if they are fully prepared for a move. No one can move across more than 1,700,000 Light years in a resonable period of time, even if they did have access to the Halo network...which we cut them off from after Ambassador Kimbuto left." Yuri said smugly.

"Yes, surely the USS problem is a non-issue, eh, Soskap?" Kaine said.

"I suppose, but I won't turn a blind eye so fast." Soskap said cautiously.

"What of the Covenant? We have not discussed exactly what we shall do to minimize their annoyance." Yuri said.

"Grand Admiral Anjek was willing to use Superweapons, along with Chemical and Biological warfare against civilians. That caused them no end to problems. Right now Ebola and Smallpox are rampant in Covenant space, not to mention scattered outbreaks of 'T' and 'G' virus and Kyrtos. I think that we should attempt to negotate the Covenant into a cease fire for the moment. They would perhaps be exceedingly willing if we made it clear that such attacks would increase in ferocity should no accord be reached. This would give us time to purge the military and bring the Coalition fully under our control." Kaine said. Around the triangular table, they nodded.

"Or if needed, we could simply eradicate to Covenant threat wholsesale. I believe that Wildfire is more than capable of tailoring a Genetic Terminator virus specifically for the Genotypes of Covenant members. It would be an exceedingly easy way to deal with them as a whole and give us a vast amount of territory to expand into." Soskap said.

"Unfortunately, with the way that the Covenant uses their brainwashing, killing off Humans would leave us at a distinct disadvantage Soskap." Yuri said. Soskap did not respond.

"Besides, it's better to retain the Covenant as a valid threat. We need an outside force that would unify the members of the Coalition to work together against, lest they become unruly and willing to focus their agression on us." Kaine said.

"We need to kill them." Soskap conceded.

"Fighting the Covenant to a standstill would be far to bloodly, and could cause problems in and of itself. Sacrificing too many regulars could cause unrest amongst their homelands. We sould strive for peace to give us time to prepare to fight against them again." Kaine said, and more nods came from around the table.

"Gentlemen, I believe at the moment, all we can do is wait for the SCPKF to complete their objectives and we can fully consider ourselves masters of the Coalition. Free from annoyances." Soskap said.

* * *

**New Calisto, United Stellar States R&D World,**

**Projects; (Longevity, Medical Technologies, Nano-technology, FTL drive Technology, FTL Communications Technology, Transwarp Research),**

**August 20th, 2554 UST, 0900 Hrs**

For a colony world, New Calisto was a rarity, it hadn't required teraforming. It was already beautiful. It played host to some of the brightest minds in the USS, Medical researches and physicians from across the Galaxy came to New Calisto to be at the forefront of medical research. Physicists and engineers came to work with the most cutting edge technology in space travel and communications. It was a utopia of the mind, and not just in name, New Calisto had been considered one of the 'smartest' planets in the USS for over a century, boasting what was without argument the most inteligent populations of any planet. But with it's large intelectual population, it was of national importance because it the research that was undertaken there. Which meant that a minor naval detachment sat in orbit, watching the haven of the mind below.

The Imperium of Man had launched an invasion of New Calisto which had been undertaken by a full regiment of Cadian Imperial Guardsmen, and a Company of the Ultramarines chapter of Space marines. The Imperium had hit hard and fast, hard and fast enough to take down the naval detachment with barely a shot being fired, something that would forever linger as an embarasment to the crewmembers of the 8th Fleet. The defenders had managed a heroic defense of the planet and it's population of 15 million researcher personnel, but even 250 Klingon warriors couldn't hold out against over 50,000 Imperial Guardsmen and several hundred Ultramarines. They had put up over 48 hours worth of solid resistance before being overwhelmed.

"I congratulate you on your victory General." Techpriest Laraort said, his vox-box clicking between each word as he walked along. The tech-priest robes he wore shrouded his face and rampant mechanical augmentations that were blessed upon him by the Machine-God. His mouth and vocal cords had been replaced by a much more efficent vox system, and his eyes augmented by a multi-spectral monacle unit. His right leg was replaced with a cybernetic one, and his back bristled with jagged edges of a micro logic core, augmenting his own expansive intelect. Behind him strode a Gun-servitor, it's right arm replaced with a heavy bolter, it's left with a hell-gun. The servitor's head swept back and forth, targeting systems panning over the possible targets in the area. On his other side walked a combat-servitor, it's normal arms replaced with chainswords and other cutting blades.

"No need for congratulations, it was merely the God-Emperor's will being carried out." General Skaral said. His own body was a marked contrast to that of Techpriest Laraort's. Wheras Laraort was augmented with machines and cybernetic enhancements, striving to make himself closer to the Machine-God, General Skaral had molded himself into a prime example of humanity. He was strong, handsome and well muscled beneath his Carapace armor, his face pepered with light scars from years of service, but his body devoid of the bionics that would normally be found on a veteran commander of his experiance. A force sword bonced on one hip, still sticky with pinkish blood of the defenders of this planet. Behind him marched others, the small elite command squad that followed him into battle. Veteran Guardsmen armed with hell-guns and bolters, along with his sanctioned-psycher and Commisar.

"But I insist General." Laraort said again, clicking. Skaral shook his head lightly and surveyed the courtyard they stood in. It had been heavily damaged during the assualt. From what the tech-priests had said, this was the center of the planets main research facility. For Skaral it seemed like a study in blasphemy. There were no monuments to the God-Emperor, just battered buildings that were made of stone and glass. No shrines or inscriptions paying homage to he Emperor, not even artifices to the Machine-God, like any normal research facilty would have. The once neatly trimmed and cared for green lawns were a churned up mess of mud and bodyparts. Pools of blood seemed to alternate with water here and there, normal, proper human red, with the sick alien pink...and assorted other colors. Squads of guardsmen went about, collecting bodies, laying out the bodies of their fellow guardsmen in neat rows to be collected for proper burial. Others collected the bodies of the dead alien and human defenders, pitching them on a large burning heap as a pair of guardsmen played a line of burning promethium over them with their flamers, producing a sickly sweet smelling smoke that wafted about.

"So I must ask, after so much combat, have your techpriests found what you were after?" Skaral asked as they slogged along past a team of Kasrikin marching out of one of the buildings.

"We belive so." Laraort replied, and gestured with his hand. The Cadian General followed the tech-priest into one of the gaping doorways in the buildings. Inside the building, a few lights glowed, bright and clear, but much of the light was provided by servo-skulls with lamps on them flying about, providing illumination for techpriests and their acolytes as they sifted through what was a wealth of information. Much of the interior of the complexe looked like the interior of a rich villa, rather than a research facility, wood paneling, fine art, sculputres and paper books, what wasn't destroyed by weapons fire that is. Cadians stood at intervals along the halls, faces giving away nothing in the changing light. Some carried strange looking electronic equipment and others, large containers filled with hardcopy information. The techpriests were quite clearly strip mining this world of it's information.

Deeper they walked into the compound, moving down flights of stairs to levels buried deep beneath the surface, but even as they moved deeper the numbers of acolytes and guardsmen did not decrease. It seemed as though they had increased, and added to it were the ragged looking forms of the former residents of this facility, being forced to give tours and mettle out their own carefuly undertaken research information to the waiting Tech-priests. As they went deeper, the facility seemed to become less and less like a vila and more and more like a crypt. The walls became ever more devoid, and the temperature dropped. A strange, pungent odor filled the air and entire rooms were sealed behind force shields and floor to ceiling glass. Inside some of them, Tech-priests walked, clad in sterile-sealed gowns to protect them from whatever unholy, unsanctified forces were present inside.

"As we fought with this rabble, on other worlds of course, we took prisoners of their own human stock and began to realize than many of them lived exceedingly long lives entirely devoid of disease or sickness. We wondered what could be the cause of such remarkable health since the did not posess bionics as we know them. Our research centered on their blood. More specifically what was within it." Laraort said.

"And what was in it, Tech-priest?" Skaral asked.

"Machines. Machines so small that they are invisible to all but the most potent observation tools. Nano-machines. These barbarous xeno-loving heathens have made exceptional strides in this field, so much in fact that their people are capable of living for nearly a millenium without difficulty." Laraort said, they walked through a doorway with a hand-marked sign in high gothic; NO ENTRY, EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS. On either side of the doorway, were signs with strange, near gothic writing on them. It took Skaral a moment to make out; LONGEVITY, IMMORTALITY LAB

"A thousand years? Quite an achivement without bionics or augmentation. So is this the faciltiy where the research takes place?" Skaral asked, ignoring the pang of unease as he passed by the sign, and noting absently that all the guards here were Kasrikn with sealed helmets and rebreathers.

"Not exactly. Here they are working on developing a far more potent form, one that could perhaps give it's host immortality. One that could actually bring the dead back to life." Laraort said, he pushed open a glass pane door and they stepped through, looking down into a lab that was all gleaming chrome and white plastic. Inside several techpriests worked, wearing full isolation gowns as they moved small vials into shock proof armored cases. In each of the tiny vials a small amount of what looked to be liquid mercury resided. The techpriests moved delicatly, or as delicately as their bionics allowed them too. Kasrikn and Servitors stood watch around the perimiter of the room, while a pair held a strange creature captive. It was extremely insectile in it's appearance, it didn't seem to have visible eyes and it did have large probiscus instead of a mouth.

Skaral stepped over towards the xeno and looked at it's white outfit. On it's chest the phrase 'Chief Researcher Quaxt' was visible. The Cadian commander looked at the creature's face and gazed at it long and hard. It clicked in an annoyed sort of way, and Skaral's own eyes narrowed.

"Do you speak xeno?" Skaral said.

"Yes I can speak, what do you want with me?" It said, with what probably passed for a sneer in this creature's range of expressions.

"What did you do in this lab?" Skaral asked, with a vague gesture around behind him.

"I already told your cybernetic minons, didn't they see fit to explain it to you?" Quaxt said.

"Tell _me_ xeno." Skaral said with the air of a parent confronting an errant child.

"Very well. We were working on improving the potency of our Lazarous-nano strain. It was capable of regenerating damaged tissue, except for nerual tissue. It could repair neural tissues as they degraded, but long term atrophy was a problem. Now we are able to provide full repair at the celular level for any amount of damage, in essence allowing for immortality. If not allowing for an increased standard of living, superior to that which was enjoyed before." Quaxt said.

"I see." Skaral said softly, mulling over what he had just been told. Even if it was a xeno telling him such information, it could not be dismissed readily.

"I should hope, it was as simple as I could make it." Quaxt said, but Skaral had filtered it out as he spoke to Techpriest Laraort.

"Tell me Techpriest, why exactly was interest shown in this particular research program?" Skaral asked.

"My dear general. We weren't sent here just for this. The Inquisition was quite intent on gathering up all the fruits of this facility. Why though, they did not say." Laraort clicked.

"Who exactly in the inquisition wanted xeno and heathen technology? I know that if it is so desired it can be consecrated by the machine spirit and made to serve the glory of the Imperium...but I wonder just who would be using this technology...it very much seems to be something from the Dark Age." General Skaral said.

"I heartily agree General. But the Machine Spirits, should they be willing, could be used to purify this heathen technology, and turn it to our own ends and needs." Techpriest Laraort said, his mechanical eyes whirring as they focused in on the small vials as they were being moved. The small measures of strange silvery fluid sat inert within the small containers of clear plastic, the millions of nano-machines within them, waiting for their chance to act out their encoded programing.

If their sophisticated AI minds had any idea what they were to be utilized for, who they were going to be injected into, perhaps they would have felt doubt, or anger.

Or anticipation.

* * *

**United Stellar States Carrier Assault Battlegroup, Flagship _Karl Donnitz,_**

**40,000 Lightyears beyond Coalition/USS Border, Coalition side,**

**August 31st, 2554 UST, 2350 Hours**

"I do not see the logic of your theory O'neill." Teal'c said in his ever usual deadpan. Jack O'Neill glared at the Jaffa while they stood in the elevator, waiting for it to reach the command deck.

"Think about it, just think. Star Trek TV series and movies, and we actually have a United Federation of Planets with a Captain Kirk, and Captain Piccard, and Captain Sisko and Captain Janeway. Star Wars movies...and books, and computer games...and what not...we have an Empire and New Republic...and a Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and...everybody. Movie Predator, and Predator 2...and there are Predators running around, in several locales. Battlestar Galactica TV show...and I heare that an Asguard Patrol happens across a ship called a 'Battlestar' and it's named 'Galactica' and it's running from, you guessed it, 'Cylons'." O'Neill said, leanning against the elevator wall. He glanced slightly at the numbers being ticked off before looking back at Teal'c.

"And?"

"Teal'c, if they exist. If there's TV shows, and books, and movies, and computer games for that in our own little galaxy...then where are we?" Jack asked.

"Perhaps we are not important enought to warrant our own media representation. We are after all only SG-1." Teal'c replied, all Jack did was sigh and drop his head into one of his hands.

"For crying out loud Teal'c, which SG team has gotten into more problems than us? SG-6? SG-2? Come on. And even if it wasn't just about _us_ it would have to be about the SGC..." Jack mused aloud as the door opened, and revealed convieniently enough, Daniel and Carter. The pair blinked in unison as they caught the jist of Jack's statment right after 'Come on'.

"You still going on about that theory Jack?" Daniel said.

"It's only logical." Jack said defensively.

"It's at the very unlikely end of logical, sir." Carter said.

"You didn't say that when we read the report about some kid named Harry Potter and the fact that he really existed...did you Carter?...or Teal'c?" Jack said shrewdly. Carter was determintly looking anywhere but at her CO, and Teal'c merely gave an eyebrow raise.

"Ahem, so. If your theory is real, what are we...or the SGC...or what have you? Book? Movie? TV show?" Daniel asked. Jack's eye twitched as the memory of the lampoonishly silly 'Wormhole Xtreme' TV series rose in front of his mind's eye.

"Movie. I hope." Jack said quickly.

"I have to ask, just who would you want to play you?" Carter said, the edges of her mouth twitching upwards slightly. Whether he didn't notice, or simply ignroed it, Jack didn't comment, but instead turned speculative for a few moments before answering.

"Kurt Russell." Jack said finally.

"Really? I always thought the guy who played MacGyver looked more like you." Carter said as the lift doors opened on the command levels. SG-1 stepped out and begain to walk through the armored corridors, heading towards the bridge. The corridors of the ship were a strange mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. Much of the ship's design echoed that of a US naval ship, or of the Prometheus, with slightly alien touches here and there. Design fixtures that to SG-1 seemed vaguely alien, but looked bleded into the familiar lines of human engineering...blurred by time. Signs and warnings in English adorned the walls, but names that were unlikely to be used by any human were on doors, names using 'z', 'x' and 'q' far too often as well.

Alongside this vaguely alien archetecture was those that inhabited it. While the design of the ship was familiar, almost reasuring in it's feel...those that walked through the corridors were enough to throw even the seasoned and well traveled members of SG-1 reeling in suprise. It seemed to be more of a zoo than a starship. In the distance traveled from the lifts to the main bridge nearly fifty different sentient species were passed, running the gambit from 'humanoid' to 'gaseous suspension'. No two beings were the same. Even though Humans made a fairly large portion of USS military forces, non-human species were far from being scarce.

"Daniel, while we all know that the USS is...slightly different from our own galaxy..." Jack said, casting a sideways glance at the towering form of something that looked to be a shambling, humanoid plant wearing a bandolier with insignia identifying it as a Chief Petty Officer. "...what exactly caused it to be this differnt?"

Daniel opened up the holo-binder he held and looked at the display as pages of information flashed by over his hands.

"The information from the Forerunner Halo network in this galaxy states that it is more or less a 'combination' galaxy. They seeded as many worlds as possible with sentient species and decided to let them go at it and see who came out on top." Daniel said.

"I did not belive your American people to be so capable of militarialistic expansion, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c said.

"Well, it's not exactly an America as we know it or it could have been. From what I could figure out, the american revolution was much more violent, bordering on a total-war campaign by the British. This tempered many attitudes in the founding fathers, and set the stage for a much more military minded, nation to develop. Much of US history is dominated by agressive wars of expansion, colonization and cultural domination. All these combined to a militant nation that we see today that views the military as something as a total calling, service to country and national loyalty as being a requirment. Politics never developed it's bi-partisan nature that we can see today, while their are a multitude of political parties, their goals are far from being as drastically different as those we see." Daniel said.

"And all this?" Jack asked, gesturing around.

"They've got an almost 8,000 year head start on the Asguard in our galaxy. Much of this technological advantage is simply from that. But also they've been fighting the Borg for the past thousand years, and have been copying technology where-ever they can. A lot of this is also a result of cultural integration which leads towards a maximization of the available species." Carter answered.

"Carter?"

"They all started working together from the get-go instead of fighting against one another."

"Thank you. So this US is one of the most unlikely and nearly impossible outcomes to be had? Anywhere?" Jack asked.

"More or less. But they're here." Daniel replied.

Jack nodded as they walked on, pasuing by the two sentries on either side of the bridge doors before entering.

"Ah, greetings SG-1. So glad of you all to come to the bridge. I was about to send for you." A slightly computer altered and british accented voice said from across the comand center. The unbeliveably alien form of the Admiral in command of the taskforce came into view. It was, to be acurrate, one of H.G. Well's Martians. Moving on a writhing series of tenticals, it's eyes staring out darkly from it's large, leather skinned main body, dominated only by it's dark black eyes and large beak. Around it's arbitrary midsection was a small anti-grav device, allowing the creature to move easily without collapsing in the normal 1.0 gee of the starship. Along with this was a translation unit that turned it's 'uula' speach into english and blanked out it's normal screaming cries. It also had it's own species equivalent of a uniform that displayed it's rank and commendations, which for the Martian Admiral was quite impressive...even if it was worn like a cross between a headband and a tiara.

"Yes, Admiral. So what's the ocasion?" Jack said, stifiling the slight unease at speaking with something that was so undeniably alien, in some ways more alien than any creature he had ever met in his life. The fact that the Martian Admiral had no name that he knew of added to that slight unease.

"The taskforce is about to move out. We've been given new orders to head to Filmar IV in Human Alliance territiory and assist New Republic, Imperial and Coalition Army forces in their fight against the SCPKF coup." The Admiral said.

"How long will it take us to get there?" Jack asked. SG-1 was here, not as a combat force, but as a military observer force. Just like military units from other 'Americas' that were new members of this United Americas alliance. They'd arrived here a few days prior and this was only the second time that they had met the Admiral, most of the time had been spent traveling through the fleet and examaning everything from small arms and body armor to capital ships and mobile suits to gague the military effectiveness of the USS. Jack's synopsis of their military capabilities had been sumed up in a few words. "Be glad they're on our side."

"First we must combine with the 135th Shock Troops, and 942nd Light Infantry. It is a planetary assault for the most part Colonel. We won't do a half measure." The Martian said.

"Of course, of course...um...when will they get here?" Jack asked.

"Well, they were staged at Pericles VII, which is 15 thousand light years on the other side of the border, they left a few minutes ago."

"Wait, a few minutes ago? How long will it take them to get here?" Jack asked.

"Can't say, navigation?" The Admiral asked looking off to one of the consoles, this one manned by what was clearly a Klingon.

"Now sir." The Klingon said pointing to the tactical center.

"Ah, exellent." The Admiral said, sliding arcoss the floor to his command station. He triggered one control toggle and activated the fleet wide comm.

"Attention, this the Admiral speaking... We are about to enter what might possibly be a combat zone. We're about to enter Transwarp to Filmar IV, current Capital of the Sentient Coalition. While I know that we have engaged and destroyed SCPKF forces, we are heading to Filmar IV not to destroy it, but to assist Coalition forces in stoping a coup being launched by SCPKF troops. As you are all aware, the SCPKF and it's leadership have openly threatened the President and this great nation, and that is something which cannont be taken lightly, even if it is far from being an act of war. We have been asked to undertake this task by the President, so we shall." The Admiral said shortly, then flicked a tentical at the navigation station. The crew-being, a fuzzy, small almost stuffed animal like creature nodded, and it's tiny clawed hands danced over the controls.

"Transwarp?" Jack asked softly, leaning slightly towards Carter.

"Borg Technology. They redesigned it to have the effect of making a wormhole between two points in space time, near instant travel...just like a stargate, only a whole lot better." She replied quickly.

"Ah." Jack said as a massive, green disturbance began to form in front of the fleet. As his eyes adjusted to the light and he began to see that it was not one large green blob, but a series of smaller, independent green blobs, each one set before an individual ship. But before he could make any more observations, the universe seemed to disaapear in an immense, all consuming flash of green light. He blinked, and the viewport had changed from looking out onto empty space to looking at the whirling maelstrom of asteroids, defense satilites and holograms that made up the endless devensive cloud surrounding the small tan colored sphere of Filmar IV. In that maelstrom lurked everything from simple contact mines armed with nuclear explosives to artificial black holes waiting to swallow up matter to infinity. Cloaked battle stations and defense platforms laid in wait, armed with weaponry capable of vaporizing planets if it had been turned on a world.

All these defenses were still manned by soldiers of the Human Alliance, a force which for the moment lacked a side in this Civil War. But did not lack orders.

* * *

**Defense Coordination Platform _Hantrakos,_**

**Drifting in Filmar IV defensive Asteroid Field,**

**August 31st, 2554 UST, 0001 Hours**

Platforn _Hantrakos_ was manned with 1,000 marines, 40 Main disruptor emplacements, 15 Plasma torpedo emplacements, a phasor point defense platform, and had in it's hangars 22 Light Cloak-missile cruisers, and 120 fighter-bombers. It was one of the main defensive hubs in the network, functioning more to guide the actions of other defensive platforms than actually fight, it's substantial armor was almost puny compared to that of many of the main battle stations. It was supposed to sit back, use it's massive sensor arrays and cloak to remain hidden and study the attackers, before ordering other platforms to open fire and what to fire on. All this was supposed to catch an attacker as it wandered blindly in among the nearly moon sized asteroids, black holes and holograms, destorying them before they could even find out what they were being shot at by. The station was always on full alert, it's stations constantly crewed and it's personnel always in full armor and armed. Most of the station's time was spent in complete communications silence, no messages going in or out to give away it's position.

This left Platform _Hantrakos_ completely unaware of what the arrival of the USS Taskforce meant, and unaware of the SCPKF coup going on a few short parsecs away.

Although the fourty SCPKF troopers stationed on the platform were more than aware of this fact.

The command center was the combat, communications and control center of the platform, although the Sensor network had it's own control center, all information and data was routed through the command center. All control of the station and information being relayed to other battle stations came through here. Staffed with eight officers, highest ranked at captain, the battle station's other crewmen were either asleep, or maning their stations on the 12 hour watch leaving only 500 of the full thousand awake.

All fourty SCPKF troopers were awake, armored and ready in case of the eventuality of external influence. While on the planet the Human Alliance had taken sides with the Coalition's High Command, none of the Battlestations or Defense Platforms were aware of this, since the main communications center on Filmar IV had been taken by SCPKF forces early in the coup. Now the only communications being relayed was via the tachyon burst trasmitter units which the SCPKF troopers posessed.

Small Unit Commander Collins and his troops were standing watch in the small armored command center, ready to ensure that the Human Alliance troops followed their orders.

"Commander! I have incoming contacts just droping from Transwarp. Sensor patterns match United Stellar States combat vessels. Four Mobile Suit/fighter carriers, three Dreadnaught class vessels, fifteen escort vessels of Cruiser class, twenty escort vessels of Destroyer class, and ten unidentified vessels...computer systems identify them as possibly being troop transports. Vessels are droping hot, weapons and shields are ready." A saurian voice said with the calm that had been drilled into him over years of training.

"Main holo." Captain Elians said turning his command chair to look at the expansive main viewscreen. As the large reptilian Grendali looked at the holo, the starships turned into bright points of light, each higlighted against the asteroid field. As he watched the ships began to accelerate with more conventional drive systems, cutting through the asteroid belts without consulting Filmar IV for the correct pathways to take, a nerve racking excresize for the helmsmen and sensor operators, trying to tell the difference between real obstructions and false...and trying to locate every mine and weapons emplacement in the moras before them.

"Sir, their path is direct towards Filmar IV. I have recived no transmissions from them." The sensor crewman said.

"Have all stations prepare for combat."

"Aye." Comms said, her fingers dancing across the console before her.

"Combat sensors, began scanning. I want optimal target locations on each of those ships prepared for relay." Elians said.

"Aye sir, but that might be a problem. They've pulse cloaked their systems, we can't get any sensor information from them. All identification is visual...and we cannot rely on that." The sensor operator said not taking his gaze from his control station.

"Comm, order all stations to plot firing solutions based on visual markers. Prepare to fire."

* * *

**United Stellar States Carrier Assault Battlegroup, Flagship _Karl Donnitz,_**

**Filmar IV System, Asteroid defensive perimiter,**

**September 1st, 2554 UST, 0005 Hours**

"Sensors report clear transit path through the asteroid field located Admiral."

"Good, full speed ahead." The martian Admiral said, it's electronicaly articulated voice shifting to a tone of someone bracing themselves for bad news to fall upon their ears. The dark, empty eyes of the martian shifted around speculatively, gazing out through the viewport at the equaly back forms spinning in the space beyond. The Admiral knew the limits of Human Alliance technology, just as well as he knew the limits of his own ships and people.

"Have still recived no challenge from Human Alliance forces." Communications said.

"Continue forward. We've provided the proper codes for entry."

"Have you ever been here Admiral?" Jack asked looking at the asteroid field and the far too small sphere of Filmar IV far beyond it.

"No, I have not."

"Has any USS ship?"

"Yes, of course."

"Tell me, don't they usually respond to vessels arriving in system, one way or the other?"

* * *

**Defense Coordination Platform _Hantrakos,_**

**Communications relay station,**

**September 1st, 2554 UST, 0006 Hours**

While Platform _Hantrakos_ had a communcations center in the Command bridge, the main com system was centralized in a small cramped office that was several decks down from the Command Center. All incoming and outgoing transmissions from other vessels, or Filmar IV were handled here. Communications with the defensive network were handled in another chamber, much like this one, packed with displays and consoles, filled with encrypt/decrypt equipment and hardedned against the rigors of battle. Two troopers manned this small chamber, and were being watched by a single SCPKF trooper.

"Reciving broad channel transmission from the USS fleet." One of the troopers said without emotion. It's manipulator digits working the decryption equipment to muddle over the message being sent.

"Confirmed. Message inculdes valid code authorization for acess to Filmar IV. Transmission appears valid." The second trooper said.

"Re-checking..." The first soldier answered, their training and procedure taking over from their own views on what was happening.

Just like behind them the Peacekeeper stood, an M22 Assault Carbine he had resting in his hands. Behind his opaque viewplate he too held no emotion or expression, he was just following orders. He swung the muzzle of the M22 down and pulled the trigger, sending a stream of needles into the pair of armored troopers as they worked. Unlike the M21 Rifle, the M22 Carbine was designed to be a weapon for supression and firepower, it was capable of fully automatic fire that was on par with a chemical propelled submachinegun that would have been commonplace on many worlds in the Coalition. The trooper swept the rounds through the communcations room, killing both Alliance soldiers before they could react. The needles from the M22 were just as lethal as its more accurate, and larger, parent design.

The Peacekeeper then stepped out of the room, sealed the hatch and scrambled the lock. Ensuring the coming engagement would not be easily stopped.

* * *

**Defense Coordination Platform _Hantrakos,_**

**Command Center,**

**September 1st, 2554 UST, 0008 Hours**

"Communications Severed." A soft voice said through the ear-piece of the Jager-Panzer command armor. This miniscule voice was unheard by the Command crew in the Platform's command center, but it rang loud and clear to the Peacekeepers as they stood in place around the ship. The SCPKF commander merely triggered an acknowledgement message, not bothering with words at this stage. Everyone knew what they would need to do if things didn't work out as planned, their M22's were loaded and ready for that unfortunate eventuality.

"Commander, still no transmission from the USS fleet. Weapons platforms are ready to engage." Tactical operations said.

"I understand. Sensors, any other contacts beyond that of the USS fleet?"

"None sir." The sensor crewman said. The commander frowned, bringing a grim expression to his alien face. He knew his duty well.

"Battlestations open fire." Commander Elians said. Without thought or hesitation, his orders were carried out.

* * *

**Filmar IV, Coalition High Command,**

**High Command Levels, Office of Grand Admiral Anjek,**

**September 1st, 2554, 0010 Hours UST**

For over a month High command had been a full fledged war-zone. The once elegant and richly decorated walls and offices that held the military leaders of the Coalition faced the ravages of war that endless planets and people had known. Coriddors panneled in richly collored grell wood were shredded to splinters, works of priceless art and sculpture were mangled and pounded to dust. Furniture and antiques worth fortunes were simply obliterated. Such destruction of so much antiquity and refinement would be refered to as sacrilige and abomination by some if they were asked. But to anyone on Filmar IV...their answer would be the same, it was war. Wounded and injured were stacked in corridors and offices. Ordinary troopers manned barricades and defensive positions along side Admirals and Generals. No one could escape the killing and the fighting

The once neatly kept office of Grand Admiral Anjek had been fought over repeatedly, lost and retaken many times. Each time leaving it's brutal mark upon the chamber.

Right now, the once resplendidly clean and well maintained uniform of Grand Admiral Anjek was coated in black soot, blood and other grime. His office was a mess, one wall had a massive hole in it from where stormtroopers had blasted their way in to dislodge the SCPKF defenders. Anjek sat on a mostly round piece of rubble, a flimsplast map spread on what had been a chunk of his large desk, the only light in the room being cast by a single glowrod. His long thin fingers moved small markers over the map and his face was locked in an expression of deep concentration.

"Grand Admiral! The United Stellar States has arrived, but the Human Alliance defense platforms are firing on them!" A New Republic Special Forces trooper said, rushing into the room. Anjek looked up from his map and nodded. He'd expected as much, the Tribunal couldn't risk their intervention. But Anjek knew that it was needed if they were going to settle this coup once and for all. The fighting had been a holding action, waiting for the right moment to strike, even if the USS didn't know the role that they were going to play, Anjek knew just what they were going to be doing.

"Alright, get me -9421 as soon as you can. I need her here now." Anjek said.

"But I am Grand Admiral." A soft, almost feline voice said from behind him. Anjek didn't have to turn to know that the Noghri Spartan was standing in the shattered remnants of the window that looked down into the former command center.

"Impecable timing -9421. It's time for us to strike." Anjek said without turning. Behind him, the Noghri remained silent, not moving.

"How many Spartans are on Filmar IV, -9421?" Anjek asked, looking back over his shoulder.

"Nine. Including myself."

"One for each leader of the Tribunal. One to the communications center, and four too ensure the security of the representatives. The Tribunal might get desperate if they think things are going to go poorly for them." Anjek said.

"Things are already going poorly, for us." -9421 said gravely.

"I am aware." Anjek said softly. He was all too aware of just how badly things were going in the universe at large. With this civil war raging on Filmar IV, across the battle lines against the Covenant chaos had begun to reign. The NEXTGen Spartans had their own comm equipment, Tachyon Transmitters and an independent comm net, it was woefully insufficient to coordinate the efforts of the Coalition's Armies and Navies, but enough for them to get the bad news.

Some how, the Covenant were launching an immense offensive, led by a new General whose identity was unknown. What was known was that the front lines of the war were being pushed back, hard. Many important worlds and systems were falling, some were holding on merely by sheer force of will and tenacity. Fleets and armies kept withdrawling, forced to pull out and abandon planets and billions of civilians on the fragile hope that they could make a stand somewhere else and fight back. These snipits and small views of the greater universe showed the simple fact that without High Command, the Coalition would be doomed to defeat.

"Make sure that you are fully aware, Grand Admiral. Any longer and this war will be lost, even if we recive help from these United Stellar States and their United Americas." -9421 said, and was gone.

* * *

**Filmar IV Coalition High Command,**

**Vicinity of the Representative Chambers,**

**September 1st, 2554, 0015 Hours UST**

"Are you sure this is the right way, Sarge?"

"Quit complaining Griff."

"But where are all the mean black armored people that are supposed to be shooting at us Mr. Sergeant?"

"Actually it's a nice change of pace to have people _not_ trying to kill us Dounut."

"An excellent observation Simmons."

"I merely beat you to saying it first, sir."

"Kiss ass."

"Shut up Griff."

* * *

**Filmar IV Coalition High Command,**

**Tribunal 'Command' Chambers,**

**September 1st, 2554, 0015 Hours UST**

"Tucker...what are we doing again?"

"God damn it Caboose...can't you ever listen to the briefing?"

"Yeah, you're even more clueless that I am, and I don't even know what planet we're on."

"Shut up Tucker."

"Do you always have to be such a dick, Church?"

"Uh...Tex...what are we doing again?"

"Grrr..."

* * *

**Filmar IV Coalition High Command,**

**Main Communications Center.**

**September 1st, 2554, 0016 Hours UST**

Unlike the surpsingly effective, and yet comicly foolish plans and operations undertaken by the other eight Spartans (who for some unfathonable reason dodged every screening test and procedure that should have excluded them from the NEXTGen program like an Israeli key-note speaker at a PLO banquet) -9421's own mission was the epitome of what the NEXTGen Spartans were supposed to be.

A one-being army, capable of executing it's task without remorse, difficulty or concern.

-9421's avenue of approach to the main Communications Center was simple and direct, she walked down the main hallway, her SM-2 rifle in hand. The almost Ancient-level technology employed in the weapon was more than a match for the Merlin armor that the Peackeepers wore. Their M21's and other weapons were hardly capable of scratching the plate armor. Those needles that she didn't dodge or physically snatch from the air with her gauntleted hands, shattered against the energy shields and thick plate. It was one-sided enough to be almost too gruesome to describe. -9421 did as she had been ordered, did as she had been trained, and cleared out a company's worth of SCPKF troopers, armored and armed to the teeth, in the span of less than a minute.

Not a single console, or display read out was so much as scratched by shrapnel or scortched by weapons fire.

Not a single SCPKF trooper was left alive.

Coalition High Command was once again in control.

* * *

Yes, couple 'a cliffie's there. Don't worry the'll be taken care of, next chapter. 

Yes, I cut a lot of combat, if you can't fill it in, tough, this was about enhancing the meta plot. And work towards the 'character development' that I've been whined at about...Oh look, there was your bone...I just threw it too you...

Look for the next chapter:

Chapter 13: _Resurection, Restoration, Retribution, Revenge..._


	15. Chapter 13: Resurection, Restoration

I know that you all want an expalanation as to why it's been half a year. Simple...

Nothing _felt_ right when I wrote it. Nothing felt like what needed to be written, nothing seemed to fully fit what I wanted, I just wasn't satisfied with any of it. And I wasn't about to shove some half-assed chapter and thread out there to you guys because you are fans, and you enjoy this story for what it is, and I was going to be damned if I was going to let you have something that _I _wasn't content with. I don't write to achieve an end, I don't simply write because I need to get from A to B to C by such a point in time. I write because I need it to be right, I write it because something _deserves_ to be written.

I've written and re-written this chapter six times. _Six._ From the ground up, I've made the focus switch from everything from the SC as a whole, to the war on Coruscant, to the Federation/Klingons/Romulans, to the NEXTGen Spartans, to the Imperium of Mankind. I've finally got this which I am very satisfied with since I deleted what I had before and re-wrote _today_. It's been getting harder to find the right flow of things, to write things that have meaning. I don't know what happened, but starting that Yu Yu Hakusho story gave me something different to focus on...and for lack of a better word 'knocked' me back on track. I don't know if it's because it gave my mind a break from all this or what, but it worked.

On with the story...

* * *

Chapter 13: **_Resurection, Restoration, Retribution, Revenge..._**

_I find recent events to be quite distrubing...I have seen many things in my long life, met many beings; be they Elves, Dwarves or Men, but amongst those I would never have expected to meet beings who come not from distant lands, but from other worlds. I feel that as this age of Middle Earth draws to a close, it's trials and tribulations will be shared by others...shared by other Galaxies and the entire universe. I think that the War of the Ring will seem...miniscule in comparison to this wider conflcit, this battle between the Covenant Hegemony and the Sentient Coalition. I can sense it, yet the visions are not clear...and farsight cannot make it any clearer. I believe that the Dark Lord Sauron is bound by the One Ring no longer...and that his evil shall escape this Middle Earth._

_Escape it and spread his chaos and darkness with others whose hearts are as dark as his..._

-Excerpt from the private journal of Elrond of Rivendell

_"From what little I have learned of this war...and I have learned very little of it, the conflict between Wizards and perhaps even between muggles and the magical world pales in comparison to the war between good and evil that rages across entire galaxies, beyond the reach of our own. I never thought a day would come when a muggle would stride through the gates of Hogwarts and request to meet with me...alais, I never thought the day would come when Lord Voldemort returned to wreak havoc once more._

_I wonder just what Tom did when he learned of this conflict. Perhaps his own lust for strength and power will draw him to one side in this conflict...and I know which side that it will be, the Sentient Coalition has seen many trials as of late. Perhaps more than it is capable of handling on it's own. I know that the Coalitions leaders have asked for help from the Muggles already. The magical world should not consider this conflict beyond our concern. With other magical peoples already fighting for one side or the other...we cannot hold ourselves apart from it."_

-Part of a Conversation between Albus Dumbledore and an unknown teacher at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry

* * *

**Casulties; Theater of Operations; _CORUSCANT _**

**Covenant Planetary Landing +60 Days**

**Coalition Casuilties**Soldiers Dead/Wounded (Crippled beyond combat effective status)

New Republic 189,032,901/ 42,052,831

Imperial 118,001,034/29,921,932

Federation 5,032/12,902

Klingon 103,943/23,041

SGC 103/81

Terran Federation 1,502,041/1,003,031

Human Alliance 9,032,143/20,004,032

Elves 2,482/193

Dwarves 1,057/903

Plysserians 19,032/342

Romulans 503/32

Coruscant Militia & PDF Units/Civilian Partisans & Rebels 452,042,034,001/ 42,023,051,654

Combined SC Army, SCPKF, and Special Forces units 100,031,345/13,453,054

NEXTGen Spartans 87/4

Jedi (Of all ranks) 142/3

Psi users (Known) 27/9

Mages/Wizards/other magic users 10,029/164

**United Stellar States Casuilties**; Soldiers Dead/Wounded (To point of being withdrawn from observation of Theater of Operations)

USS Army Observer/Advisors 3,045/54

USS Marine Observer/Advisors 1,932/93

USS Areospace Force Observer/Advisors 834/42

**Covenant Casuilties est.**; Soldiers Dead

Conscripts 549,043,021,906

The Race/Lizards 92,031,084

Goa'uld (Specifically Jaffa) 12,032,049

Goa'uld (Specifically Anubis 'Super Soldiers') 153,052

Yevethans 50,013,098

Yhuuzan Vong 92,032,035

Uruk-hai 53,042

Daedra 13,956

Orks 1,052,036

Chordrechai 52,043

Reticulans 97,043

Wargots 1,032,034

Death Eaters 4

Jiralhanae/Brutes 12,900,031

Yanme/Drones 25,023,043

Sangheili/Elites 10,003,042

Unggoy/Grunts 110,011,008

Kig-Yar/Jackals 14,901,031

Paladins 12

Dark Jedi (Of all ranks) 1,032

Star Spawn 5,034,401

**Non-alligned Casuilties**; Soldiers (Nationality, believed faction) Casuilties found, Dead

Imperium of Mankind, Inquisition (All Ordo Xenos) 3

Imperium of Mankind, Imperial Guard (Cadian Kasrkin) 5

Imperium of Mankind, Adeptus Astartes (Ultramarine) 1

Imperium of Mankind, Techpriests 4

Protoss-Eldar Union, Both 7

Necrons 2

Borg 9

**Covenant Holy City; Trials of Ji'letsn**

**Holy Sanctuary of the Crusade,**

**Unknown Time**

They were seven. Figures and beings of such immense darkness and visceral evil that their very names were not said beyond whispers in their home planets. Some were clones, others were enticed to join the cause of the Hegemony by their own intrinsic yearning for control and power. Two had been drawn forth from unspeakable internment by the ancient and nebulous powers that many of the wisest in the Covenant still barely understood.

One was clad on vicious looking plate armor, and standing nearly ten feet tall, larger than any other. His armor alone looked deadly and covered in razor edged protrusions. None had ever seen this lord outside his armor, or gazed upon his face. But even amongst the evil present at this council of war, none could hope to gaze upon his twisted face without delving into the depths of madness. Lord Sauron, forger of the One Ring, threat to all the peaceful peoples of Middle Earth was the first to be approached by the Hegmony. His spirit captured and given physical form by ancient technologies that the Forerunner Alliance constructed and weilded by the Covenant. He saw the Covenant and the Great War as a means to capture power and expand his dominion beyond the mere borders of Middle Earth.

The next wore robes of white and carried with him a metal staff. He had been the next to follow along with Sauron into the employ of the Covenant Hegemony and lead it's armies. Sarumon the White, once ally to the peoples of Middle Earth, turned ally of the Dark Lord Sauron, had followed with Sauron to fight and lead, and to garner power for his own ends.

The next as a clone, but his dark essence had not come from any copy or template that the Forerunners had created, his will and spirit were the same that had posessed others, the same that had lived and learned the Dark powers of the Sith. Darth Sidious, Emperor Palpatine, corruptor of Anakin Skywalker, destroyer of the Old Republic, founder of the New Order, leader of the Empire, his clone was another that he had grown, but fortified by the techniques the Forerunners posessed that were far in advance of his own. His spirit inhabited this body as it had others, and for the same reasons. Power and control. The Hegemony gave him armies and a means to seek revenge, against the New Republic and against the Reborn Jedi Knights.

The next was also corrupted by the Dark Side, but his time was eons before that of Darth Sidious. Exar Kun, earliest of the Sith Lords, and starter of the Great Sith War had been given form and new life by the same means that the Dark Lord Sauron had. He too yearned for his revenge on the Jedi, and to rule over the peoples of not one galaxy, but millions.

The next was a clone, his body and essense taken from a Forerunner Archive. His spirit and time coming from thousands of years past, during the time of the Jedi Civil war. Darth Mallak, follower of the Prodigal Jedi Knight, Revan. Weilder of the Star Forge and the Dark lord which lead the Sith on another campaign against the Republic, decimating the Jedi and turning hundreds, if not thousands, from the path of light to the Dark side of the force.

The next of the figures around the table had been restored by the technology of the Forerunners, but not at the wishes of the Covenant Hegemony. Anubis, a being whose form was twisted between that of ascended Ancient and mortal being. A creature who fought against System Lord, Asguard and Tau'ri without care for any, a creature who posessed the knowledge of not just the Ancients but also the barest traces of understanding of the divine powers at the command of the Forerunner Alliance...and a whisp of the knowledge of the force that obliterated them.

The next was not human, or of human body like the rest were...no matter how far removed from that form they now were. The Dark Lord Dagoth Ur, traitor to the Great Houses of Morrowind and Dunmer general. Slain once by the Nevarine, and once more ascended to power and ready to wage war against the residents of Morrowind, be they Dunmer, or Imperial.

There were two more. Neither of them present, but both just as posessed of evil as the others that sat at this table.

One had taken a journey to condense his power. Another had journeyed to the battlefield of Coruscant to end the siege there once and for all.

This assemblage of lords, rulers of darkeness and commanders of Armies of perhaps the most unholy and evil creatures whose deeds rival those of the Chaos followers of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch. Beings who cast their own worlds or galaxies alight with the fires of war and decimation, lead armies of darkness across lands beyond measure. Fought with all their horrors and hatred against anything that was good, and true, and right. These creatures were without remorse, redemption or mercy. They felt no sorrow for those whose wrath they incurred, no pity for the people that were smashed beneath the boots of their forces. Their followers were numbered amongst the most vile creatures imaginable. And they had cast their lot in with the Covenant Hegemony not out of debt or honor, but out of greed and lust for power...out of hatred for all things and a burning, unquenchable desire to conqure and rule. Perhaps if the Covenant won their war...if their armies annihilated the Coalition and marched across the surface of worlds without number they would sate their taste of conquest, but perhaps not.

They now fought their own ancient foes once more, not with swords, wands, blasters or staff weapons...but with plasma rifles, carbines, Scarabs, Goliaths and Wraiths. leading hordes of Uruk-hai and Orks along side Conscripts and Sangheili, Dark Jedi and Death Eaters. Their union was one of unholy nature and perhaps not seen since the Horus Heresy in the Imperium of Mankind.

Coruscant, in all it's decimated glory hung in the air above them, the hologram showing the devistation that the world was still suffering. A once great city world full of life and beings was now reduced to nothing more than a valueless prize to be bought with the blood of trillions.

**Earth 998-1232-453, United Stellar States Homeworld,**

**Highport 'Ascendancy' Orbital Space Transit Hub, Geosychrenous Orbit over Havana, State of Cuba,**

**August 16th, 2554 UST, August 16th, 10003 Local Time**

For many in the USS, interstellar warfare was simply a way of life. Something that had always been, and probably always would be. The war with the Borg had raged for a thousand years, long enough for two entire generations to be born, with the average lifespan of a human in the USS at 500 years, this was incredible. Children had grown up and lived their lives knowing the war, and feeling it's impact. Everyone reguarded the security, the militarization, the sacrifices as being something that was a day-to-day occurance.

How could one protest when thousands died every day fighting the Borg?

And even now, new foes had risen along side the implaccable Borg. Necrons, and their Star-Gods, the C'tan, streaming though the HALO gates into USS space. The Covenant Hegemony too had begun to make tentative movements towards the USS, even with their massive war against the Sentient Coalition...they hungered for more, even if their appetite was unknown to any beyond their leaders. The Imperium of Mankind, a galactic empire that some newsnet pundits and sociologists had termed 'The USS's evil twin' was also rising, using it's growing internal stability to push outwards and grow.

These prominent threats were dangerous enough to the United Stellar States, but more insidious threats that were rising within the young -and so far untested- United Americas. Sociological threats and different mindsets that were more dangerous than any standing army. Fighting an enemy was hard enough without voices being raised from those who call themselves 'allies', questioning your right to defend yourself. No-one in the United Stellar States wanted to consider the possiblity that there own system of government, that their own culture and society were so unique that none of their allies were willing to empathize. The USS had long since believed that if they needed to fight this war alone they would and could do so, but no-one wanted to have to fight alone.

President Mennendo had been in office for a century, four 25 year terms, a deft politician and leader. He knew that he would need to pull these other nations closer to the USS's leadership, to make them believe that the USS was the only force capable of defending all that was true and free and right in the universe, lest more governments and nations fall in line behind the Sentient Coalition, a force whose true motives seemed to be cast in doubt. The Rodian knew that knowledge and understanding would be the best, if the only way to unify these disjointed and diverse cultures behind the USS and drive the Covenant, the Borg, the Necrons and the Imperium of Mankind back to their own borders and secure safety for innocents innumerable. Which was why a diverse number of representatives had been brought to Earth. To hear the words of President Mennendo and find out just what the USS stood for, and what they fought for.

Dr. Heywood Floyd considered himself to be well traveled. He'd been across the face of Earth, all the way to the Jovian sattelite system before Jupiter had become the star Lucifer by forces unknown. He'd even been to Europa, one of the few humans ever to have walked on the face of that interdicted moon. He'd lived a long life and a statisfying one, and at one hundred and three, considered himself finished with spacetravel...and then the truly amazing happened.

Everything that Dr. Floyd ever knew about science and the universe was tossed on it's side, when a starship piloted by humans emerged from what they said was an artificial 'Transwarp' portal. Nearly everything that he had thought impossible was possible, and the entire population of Earth had seen it's rationale and mindset thrown on end by the fantastic stories that had been told to them.

Aliens!

Interstellar warfare!

Other humans from other Galaxies!

It was all fantastic. The general confusion and wonderment of the event had become rather over-shadowed by the dark and foreboding truth behind it all. The heroes of movies and science fiction and fantasy were real...as were their demons and villans. That dark truth had caused no small measure of panic to ripple through the human race, but this had subsided with the personal garantee of the USS's president that no harm would come to the defensless peoples of the Solar system. Floyd frowned at the thought of warships sitting in orbit over Earth, Mars, and other planets, waiting to fight off invaders bent on destroying them simply because they were there. And now, now an alliance of worlds, of peoples had been offered by this President Mennendo, who had yet to be seen by any member of Humanity, at least from Floyd's little backwater system. When the USS had called for emissaries from select worlds to come and hear their message, to hear what this USS had to say, he had been selected as the natural choice to acompany the emissaries.

So here he sat, amidst others from planets and worlds as diverse as the bounds of imagination, waiting for the shuttle to dock. For Heywood, that was just as startling a change as anything else. He'd flown to the Moon in less than a day in an Areis-1B lander...this shuttle was making that distance in minutes. The ship that he had been ferried to this galaxy on had jumped between the gulf of galaxies in mere hours... Heywood sighed and looked out the passenger window, just like nearly everyone else aboard. The view out the window was striking to say the least.

Nearly all Earth traffic passed through one of ten 'Highports' that were tethered to the surface of the planet by long bundles of diamonoid polymer transit tubes. The arrangement was simple, not only did space traffic, cargo and passengers have to come in and out of these highports, invaders, spies and smugglers did as well. Much of Earth was covered by impenetrable layers of defensive shielding that was stacked one on top of the other, forbidding acess or exit through only a handful of tightly controlled military bases, used by the Air Force for launching fighters, bombers and Mobile Suits in case of invasion. These ten massive space-stations, probably called Skyhooks by residents of the New Republic or Empire, each one handled several _million_ tons of freight per hour and hundreds of thousands of people in the same period.

Sixty miles long and cylindrical in shape, each of the ports boased spoked arms that raidiated outwards from either pole and the center, providing docking space to the massive freighters and passenger liners that needed to dock and unload. Suprisingly, these ten massive space stations only served civilian traffic, there were two more whose express duty was to service the USS's System fleet that defended the Capital. While the Highports were spaced around the Equator, the two Military ports rested high above opposite equators. Within the adumantium and synth-diamond walls of these massive structures, nearly a million people lived and work to maintain the flow of commerce through them. In addition to 25,000 soldiers garrisoned within each. Two divisions worth of National Guard forces optimized for Military Police and patrol work, and 5,000 Marines. Enough to hold these massive structures against outside assault.

As the shuttle knifed through space the pilot manuvered the ship much like a pilot would manuver a plane, nothing at all -in Heywood's opinion- like a spacecraft in orbit. Not only did the ship jink and weave about effortlessly, there wasn't the slightest feeling of acceleration, or any force at all, as the ship manuvered. In fact, the pilot gave the passengers a thrill by jinking around the immense bulk of a cargo freighter as it manuvered to dock. The action was quite alike something you'd find on a roller-coaster ride, but without any of the acompanying momentum.

More than one passenger gasped as the ship pulled this complicated and sudden manuver, expecting to be buffeted around in their seats by the action. A few gasped at the other sight that greeted them...emerging from what seemed to be nowhere, four immense humanoid figures took up flanking positions around the shuttle.

"Folks, that's _Kil'trak_ squadron's honor guard, all of them piloting the latest _MacArthur _class of Marine Corps Mobile Suits. Oh, and make sure to wave back to them and be polite y'all." Heywood looked out and saw that the figure was indeed _waving_ at them from outside. And of course, when a fifty foot tall armored humanoid is waiving at you, you wave back. He examined the figure and for a moment thought that it was made from the same material as the Tycho Monolith that he'd seen uncovered sixty years ago. But no...the armor was mattle black, not a black void. He examined the figure closely and noted that it was nearly identical to a human wearing ancient plate armor, it even boasted a sword and shield on it's back...in addition to the massive rifle it weilded.

"I expect that it's some kind of controlled combat robot, something like a fighter equivalent." A voice said from beside Heywood. He looked over and saw the man dresed in the uniform of a US Army Colonel, he noted the nameplate, 'Yeager'.

"Yes, I suppose so." Heywood responded looking.

"H.G. Wells' tripods don't have much on them do they?" Yeager asked, but before Heywood could reply the shuttle swooped in towards one of the immense 'arms' that stuck from the center of the platform. Quickly, one would almost say routinely, the shuttle docked and a slight vibration rattled through the ship.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to thank y'all for flying in fleet launch A-21 of _Deathstriker_ squadron. I hope you all have a wonderful time here on Earth." The pilot said as a forward door opened in the shuttle and the sounds of the station floated in through the acess port. Next to the door stood the shuttles equivalent of a 'stewardess' a very beefy looking trooper in fully body armor with a slung rifle. He nodded as the passengers filed out of the ship and walked into the interior of the station.

What greeted the delegates was awe inspiring.

The interior of the landing strut resembled the passenger terminal of a major airport, not the interior of a space station. Trees and fountains broke up the main floorspace of the passage, a space nearly a hundred yards wide, packed with travellers going to and from their ships. The entire center mass of the passage was open, rising from the bottom promenade level up to a clear ceiling that looked out into the starry sky above, the view unbroken except for starships passing by. Gantries and balconies ran along the walls of the passage, each letting out to other docking tubes and ships.

As the numerous delegates filed out of the airlock, each one recived their own, 'escort'.

"Dr. Floyd? It's a pleasure to have you here. Special Agent Theresa Flanyo, Diplomatic Security." A woman with vibrantly pink hair said. Heywood had to blink before he responded. The woman stood there, holding a badge up for Heywood's perusal. Her outfit was a black suit, complete with a neon orange tie and black sunglasses. Her associate was a man with much more normal red hair, also in a black suit, his own tie green.

"It's nice to be here, Agent Flanyo." Heywood said, his eyes lingering on the womans hair. She smiled.

"I guess I should explain now, that seems to be the first question I get asked. Yes, it _is_ natural. And no I'm _not_ human." She said, removing her sunglasses to reveal a pair of pure black eyes.

"Not human?" Heywood asked.

"No, this way sir, I'll explain as we head to the transit bundle." Agent Flanyo said, gesturing towards the main throng of people as they walked. Heywood had been so focused on the enviroment that he'd been in, he hadn't noticed the _residents_. It took him a few moments to fully assimilate what was going on around him, and just what was walking around.

Humans were in the _distinct_ minority. There were many, many humanoid creatures, but few humans.

Heywood's mind raced as his gaze began to take in the pletora of alien species that walked around, as if it was completely normal. And suddenly Heywood's mind clicked, here it _was_ normal. Dr. Heywood Floyd then began to realize just how alien a world he was in.

"Dr. Floyd? Are you alright?" Agent Flanyo asked.

"Yes...yes...just looking around here leaves me quite a bit for my mind to assimilate." Heywood said, turning around and looking at Flanyo, but his gaze tracked on a twenty foot tall creature that he'd taken to be a tree...was actually a walking, moving plant creature, two of them in fact. Ignoring the rudness of staring at what was just another person to the creatures in this Galaxy, he watched the massive plant/creatures moving along, their actions extremely reminiscent of a pair of tourists looking for the proper gate at an airport terminal for their flight.

"Dr. Floyd...sir, please, we might want to move along."

"Ah, of course." Heywood said, turning his attention to the Agent.

"As I was saying sir, I'm not human, I'm Del Karva...a Humanesque species. We evolved much the same way, as unlikely as it may seem. Much the same as Vulcans, Romulans, and a plethora of other mostly Humanoid species. The biologists haven't exactly figured out why." She explained.

"I must say it is fascinating. Where are your, uh, people from?" Heywood asked.

"Our home system is in the Andromeda star cluster, but I'm from Mars. Never been home." Flanyo said.

"Ah." Heywood said, at a loss for a question.

"So your file says that you've got some aquaintance with, what's the word in your Galaxy...extraterestrial?" Flanyo asked.

"Yes, the Tycho Monolith and it's friends Zagadka and The Wall." Heywood said, not exactly calling them a claim to alien familiarity. In a fifty yard walk from the gate he'd seen more of alien life than he'd ever expected to see in a century.

"Yeah, we wondered what those things were, lotta species did when they found them." Flanyo replied.

"Pardon?" Heywood sapped back, stopping.

"You didn't know? Those, markers, or whatever they were aren't exactly native to your system. We've never rightly figured out what they do." Flanyo responded.

"That's...interesting..." Heywood said quietly, and resumed walking. "Are you a student of astrophysics?"

"No sir, History, twin degrees from Harvard and Mars University." She said.

"I see. When were they unearthed? And where?" Heywood asked. The agent's path had taken them down much of the terminal towards what looked like a subway station entrance, which was unlikely, but the best description. Even to Heywood's untrained eye the security was noticeably heavy. Four man squads of soldiers wearing black combat armor with blue plating and black caps walked around, their hands on their weapons. Across the front of the entrance to the transport terminal a line of soldiers in similar armor, but with helmets and glowing blue 'T' shaped visors stood, holding clear Riot shields and long poles that crackled with some kind of green energy discharge. Looking up, Heywood saw two large figures hovering along in the air, suspended by nothing at all, surrouned by their own solar system of drones that whiped around them in random orbits.

"Tycho Crater of course. And on Olduvai, aparently there was one for the Martians. We found the Europan wall as well. Did the same things as yours did, with the strange messages we haven't been able to decode." Flanyo said, she held up a badge and the trio passed through the ring of foreboding looking riot troops without a problem and began to descend the stairs towards the small tram station beneath the promenade.

"And what do you think they were doing there?" Heywood asked.

"Me, personally? Or what the egg heads think?"

"Either, I like to hear an origional idea." Heywood replied with a smile.

"A tripwire."

"A tripwire?" Heywood asked.

"Yeah. Something to warn whoever left them there that Humanity is no longer imprisoned on their planet." Flanyo said quietly.

"Who did it warn though?"  
"...some think the HALOs, or whatever they're called. This Covenant/Coalition war has changed a lot of minds around here."

"And what do you think?"

"I don't think we've met them yet. Nobody's copped to planting the things." Flanyo said.

"But these, HALOs, have been found in every Galaxy, isn't that right?"

"Yeah...but those Monoliths are only about...what was it? Three million years old? They think that those HALOs are over two hundred million years older than that. Or so the history books say, it was over eight thousand years ago that they found 'em. Ancient history, you know, back when the space program started in 1900." Flanyo said.

Heywood didn't have any questions after that.

**Filmar IV, Coalition High Command,**

**Communications Center,**

**September 1st, 2554 UST**

Spartan -9421 stood looking around the decimated command center untouched by emotion. She'd felt no remorse or doubt over slaughtering the SCPKF defenders of the center, even if they were merely unwitting pawns of the Tribunal. She had her objective, and she acomplished it flawlessly. Behind her, Stormtroopers and an odd assortment of other races filed into the room, the technicians amongst them fanned out to take control of the communcations network and try to salvage the equipment that had been damaged by the SCPKF troopers in a last ditch 'scorched earth' effort. Much of the communciations equipment in the theater style room was in dissary, but Human Alliance equipment was tough and designed for the possiblity of extreme violence being leveled against it. Nearly all the equipment and gear within High Command was of Human Alliance manufacture, and given the amount of destruction that had been vested upon the facility, and the sheer power of the weapons being used by both sides; most gear had to be near indestructable to survive.

"Spartan, we have a problem." One of the Stormtroopers said standing next to her. She glanced at the black polarized lenses in his helmet for a moment before adressing him.

"What is it, Captain?" -9421 asked, she had to look up slightly to see the stormtrooper's faceplate, but she knew that the whiteback was afraid.

"Communications systems are functional, but the perimeter battle stations are not responding to hails. From what we can tell, they've engaged USS vessels attempting to enter the system."

"Are they ignoring hails?"

"No Spartan, we don't believe so. No replies are being recieved, and no jamming is detected, we believe that the fault lies at the battlestation's end." The Captail said. -9421 turned away and raised her gauntleted hand to the side of her helmet.

_Cleo, number and strength of SCPKF units stationed on the HA battlestations? _-9421 thought, the message being recived clear by the Sentient Machine entity that shared her armor.

_Light detachments, although more than enough to cut communications._ Cleo replied in an articulated voice.

"Captain, get Human Alliance command on the line and have them do a prioroity overide on he communications network to have those battle stations cease fire." -9421 said quickly. The Stormtrooper placed his hand to the side of his helmet and was clearly relaying the commands, -9421 stood up and strode out of the communications center, she was heading for the nearest hangar bay. Her genetically enhanced and naturally powerful leg muscles hammered her forward as she ran, so fast that she was little more than a blur to the Stormtroopers and Coalition forces that she raced by. -9421 dodged around troops marching through demolished corridors, around prisoners and leapt over barricades, moving as fast as she conceavibly could. As she ran, Cleo worked through layers of control codes and acess the Hangar controls.

_YT-1210 is in the bay, fueled and ready, I've got the asteroid drift charts downloaded and ready for you to go._ Cleo answered rapidly.

_Right._ -9421 thought as she raced through the airlock bay as it slid open. She sprinted across the deck plating and up the acess ramp to the Corellian built freighter. The acess hatches opened as Cleo dove through the encryption programs and security algorithms, intitializing the central reactor and control systems. Before -9421 reached the controls the transport was already lifting off.

"This is -9421, I'm heading to the Battlestations." She said over her command comm. She ignored the reply, focusing on the stations that hung in orbit, and the bright flashes of weapons fire above. Cleo controling the path of the freighter as it weaved through the asteroid field and around the stray weapons fire. The YT-1210 was an ungainly vessel, but with the Artificial Sentient being controling it, she was riding the very structural tolerances of the vessel. -9421 had her gauntleted hand wraped around a hatch frame and was denting the metal to hold herself steady.

"Cleo, you do know what you're doing right?" -9421 asked, her visor locked on the cockpit window. The looming forms of USS starships and the massive, now decloaked, battlestation was right ahead of her, growing larger with each passing moment.

_Not entirely..._was the slightly less than enthusiastic response.

"Right. Then we'll improvise." -9421 raised her SM-1 Rifle and set it to maximum charge. One shot from the power cell, but enough firepower to punch a hole through a Star Destroyer. Turning, she sped to the access ramp and braced herself.

"Cleo, pop the ramp and then kill the faux grav and forward momentum." -9421 said. Her partner did so without comment, knowing full well that the actions would send the Spartan hurtling through the void and into the battle. Free floating zero-G insertions were hard, doing it when you were flying along without thrusters was worse.

The ramp cracked open just enough for the Spartan to fly out before the gravity went out and the freighter braked _hard_. -9421 tumbled through space after leaving the freighter, her armor's cloaking systems giving her enough of a chance to survive the flight. Using her reserve thrust units, she steadied herself, and took full stock of the situation...it was at this point she noticed that only one side was firing. The USS fleet wasn't returning fire, their shields were up but they weren't firing.

"Are we on target?" -9421 looked towards the looming surface of the battle station.

_For the battlestation? Yes, other than that you missed telling me what you were aiming for._ Cleo replied, snappy.

"Yeah, well, 'Battlestaiton' was a good target." -9421 said, the distance closing rapidly. She shouldered the SM-1 and aimed it at the hull. Triggering the weapon, the self-modulating energy round ripped across space. The raw bolt of energy impacted the hull and simply disentigrated the outer layer of armor. -9421 braced herself and flew gracefully into the hole, then slammed into the wall behind it. Shaking her head, she stood and looked back at the hole, nanomachines working at the edges and sealing it shut. -9421 turned towards the nearest hatchway as Cleo worked feverishly to download the battlestaiton's schematics. As the gaping wound in the hull of the battlestation stitched shut, the internal hatches open and -9421 set off at a run through the corridors of the station as the pressure equalized.

"This is -9421 to all Human Alliance forces aboard Battlestation _Hantrakos_, cease fire on USS forces. I say again, cease fire on USS forces, priority overide command from Grand Admiral Anjek. I say again, cease fire!" -9421 said across her comm, automatically switching frequencies.

Captain Elians sat silent, watching the barrage from the defense platforms lashing out at the USS fleet. He was only slightly confused by the lack of return fire from the USS vessels, he didn't have orders to cease fire, even if the defensive batteries were doing little damage to their targets. The Saurian looked slowly to the SCPKF troopers who had not stirred from their positions since the beginning of the shooting.

"Captain, incoming message on internal frequency..." The comms trooper said, calmly.

"From, Spartan -9421 sir. She states tha-"

The SCPKF troopers had started firing. Bursts of needles sliced through the air as M22's kicked into action, lethal grace to their movements. The bridge crew were outnumbered, but out of the ten Human Alliance marines, half were gigantic Saurians, massive reptilian warriors that dwarfed even the largest human. They didn't go down as quickly as the SCPKF troopers expected. They certainly didn't expect the marines to retaliate with all the fervor of cornered animals. Without a word being spoken the five saurian marines leapt from their stations and tore into the ranks of the SCPKF troopers firing on them. Encased in armor, the monolthic forms of Saurians simply dove into combat with the SCPKF troopers. The heavier armor and much more developed musculature of the immense saurian marines causing needles to bounce and twirl off into the air before detonating. The ear-splitting roars of the Marines filled the air as they made contact with their targets, ignoring weapons and simply hammering into the troopers. Brute strength and rage enhanced with servo motors allowed the Saurians to simply rip the armored SCPKF troopers apart. In seconds, it was done. Tattered limbs and pieces of armor littered the battlestation's command center, Captain Elians snarling. Five of the crew had been killed outright, and two more had fallen, a third, heavily wounded.

"Have all stations cease fire, and tell the Marine Contingent to eliminate all SCPKF troops. _Now_." Elians ordered. He bent down and lifted one of the bodies of the fallen SCPKF detachment by the armored helmet, and gazed at the tempered synth-diamanoid viewplate. He growled and tossed the corpse away, he didn't like being decieved.

**Filmar IV, Coalition High Command,**

**Office of the Supreme Commander,**

**September 1st, 2554 UST**

Anjek sat in a simple camp chair, a lit cigara dangling from a corner of his mouth, his eyes squinting as he looked down at a hardcopy map. Above his head, a few tendrils of dust seeped down from a crack in the ceiling of his decimated office at the vibration of some unknown explosion. It was the Imperial Grand Admiral's small gesture of defiance against the chaos that had reigned through the passages of high command for days now, the open warfare that had been going on between SCPKF units and Loyalist forces. As Anjek studied the map the heavy foot steps of Coalition infantry could be heard truding along the hall outside. From beyond the doorway he heard the challenge being made by the Storm Commandos on guard there.

"Sir, the Spartans have brought the Tribunal here." The Storm Commando said. Anjek nodded slowly and folded the map before straightening himself up.

"Bring them in." Anjek said from where he sat. His eyes looked to the doorway as the trio of leaders of the Tribunal were lead into the room by several menacing looking Spartans, well somewhat menacing looking Spartans, the fact that two of them seemed to be having a heated argument over their suit comms, but forgetting not to gesture was rather funny. Even when the Spartan-Sergant in command slapped both of them hard on the sides of the helmets.

The other Spartans, in a greater sense of cohesion marched in the trio of prisoners. Yuri, Kaine, and Soskap were led in, all three mute and looking venemous, even without their freedom. The Spartans guided them in as the Storm Commandos followed, their gazes not wavering from the trio. Anjek sat calmly, leaning back slightly in his camp-chair, a tendril of smoke rising up from the cigara. Anjek nodded and the Spartans shoved the trio onto their knees.

"How the mighty have fallen." Anjek said, leaning forward in his seat.

"So what now Imperial? You have revealed to the SCPKF what has been happening, stoped the coup and the United Stellar States forces have arrived. All has been set to rights. Kill us, and end this charade of compassion." Kaine spat.

"Oh, do not mistake delay for compassion." Anjek said, his voice a snarl.

"What then? You wait so to humiliate us?" Soskap said, nervously. Anjek turned his head and looked at the human.

"No. I wanted to see how you looked before the ISB interrogators dealt with you. People tend to stop looking like they used to." Anjek said, and gestured dismissively.

"We are of use to you!" Yuri said as the cold, armored gauntlets of the Spartans grabbed him. His psionic powers were curtailed by a small collar fitted around his neck. Anjek raised his hand slightly and the Spartans froze.

"Oh? How can you be of use to me?" Anjek said, feigning intrest, his Imperial sense of sadism was cropping up...and after everything that these creatures had done to the Coalition and the war effort, they deserved to be toyed with.

"We were used by the Covenant! Their new generals employed us for their counter attack!" Kaine said.

"How did you get your orders? Why now?" Anjek asked.

"Because the new offsensive has begun, the Covenant are ready with their new armies and new leaders. Coruscant is just the beginning!" Yuri said.

"Who are these Generals?"

"We don't know, our orders came from him!" Kaine said nodding towards Soskap.

"I see..." Anjek said, looking at the thrid member of the Tribunal who said nothing in response, his face was resolute.

"You'll spare us now, right?" Yuri said. Neither he nor Kaine was behaving as Anjek thought they would, but when your life was close to being ended, you tended to act oddly if you saw it coming. But...something seemed off, from what the ISB had reported, both of them were ruthless, sadistic and heartless...not the type to beg.

"Yes, I think I should." Anjek said, and in one swift motion drew his KK-5 pistol and fired twice, killing Yuri and Kaine without a word. Both of their bodies pitched back and lay on the rubble strewn floor. Anjek scowled and holstered his weapon.

"Take him to interrogation, keep him alive." Anjek said and stood up, turning to face the blackened, shattered transperisteel window. He clasped his hands behind his back and didn't see the stares from the Spartans. They all glanced at one another quickly, before they did as they were ordered. Anjek didn't have to turn to know that the bodies were being drug away by the Storm Commandos. For a few moments the room was silent and empty behind him, Anjek reveled in the silence for a few moments.

"Well Kurrs, I see that you decided to deal with the problem quickly." Anjek heard come from behind him.

"We couldn't let them live Vallin, and besides, Soskap was their leader, or their conduit at least." Anjek said turning to face General Complin.

"How can you be sure?" Complin asked, stepping around the bloodstained spot on the floor.

"He didn't beg." Anjek said finally.

"Ah. You've seen the casuilty figures from the Coruscant Theater?" Complin asked grimly.

"Yes. This insurection has cost us greatly. The Covenant had the disruption that they needed for an assault." Anjek said.

"Unfortunately, Coruscant is just one front. Hundreds of thousands of worlds are falling, more as we speak. That disruption allowed entire army groups and battle-fleets to be over-run and annihilated. Most local defenders are reduced to gurellia actions trying to harass until we can return. The New Republic's fleet is being ground down in the skies above Coruscant, and the Imperial fleet is being picked apart peacemeal. Human Alliance naval assets are being mobilized, and those units that we've managed to get out into the field are doing exemplary work...but it's not enough."

"What of the United Stellar States? They haven't been touched by the Covenant have they?"

"They've been mobilized for quite some time. But the SCPKF insurection has done it's damndest to destroy any hope we have of getting their help." Complin said.

"We shall have to see. They're inbound now." Anjek replied.

"Sir." A modulated voice said from the door, another of the Storm Commandos. Complin wondered for a moment just how many of them Anjek had secreted about the planet.

"Yes?" Anjek said, looking at the grey armored Commando.

"Sir, we've recived a message of unknown origin. Aparently recived and dismissed by SCPKF forces during the seige." The Commando said, stepping into the room holding a data-pad. Anjek took it and flipped over the reader, gazing at the display. He frowned, and looked at the Commando.

"Unfortnately, it still seems to be encrypted." Anjek said cooly.

"Yessir. One part of the message was clear though, We thought it was some strange bit of encryption at first, but along with the order that it was to go to the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet...from Mitth'raw'nuruodo. That was all sir." The Commando said, saluted and left. Complin turned slightly to Anjek, and noticed that his cousin, although normally pale as a bone, had somehow managed to take on a slightly redish hue. He'd raised one hand to brush lightly at his temple, as though a migrane was about to come upon him.

And he was shaking.

Imperceptibly almost, but none-the less shaking.

"Kurrs?" Complin asked, quietly.

"Vallin, do you know what Mitth'raw'nuruodo is? Or rather...who?" Anjek asked, still looking at the encrypted datapad. The Caridan officer shook his head slowly.

"Or...perhaps I should ask...have you ever heard of the name Thrawn?" Anjek asked. Without pause, he tapped in the name of the greatest commander the Empire had ever known. At his side, Complin suppresed a shudder. Though they were now family, both had been on different sides of that long campaign led by Thrawn that nearly overthrew the Republic and returned the Empire to power. Anjek as a Lieutenant aboard the Star Destroyer Chimera, one of the few with the dubious honor of being there at the end of the Grand Admiral's life. Complin a Sergeant in the New Republic Army. Neither of them wanted to think back to the campaign, Complin because of the devestation that a near Clone War had wrought on the New Republic, Anjek because of the chance lost, and the death of Thrawn, a being that he had a near worship for.

The two watched the small datapad's screen as one message burned in crimson letters on the screen;

_It is time I return._

**Chapel Fortress, Precipice of Galaxy's End**

**Time. Unknown**

**Date, Unknown**

Paladin Holy Arbiter Eilivanit hovered in meditation. Leader of the Edenganer he rested his physical form as his mind grappled with the problems set before it. The Clan Viewers of Dreams had long observed and guided the Edenganer Paladins in their quest to serve and defend the Children of the Covenant, viewing the possible futures before the Covenant and how best to navigate through the murky depts of that which was to come...and it had always been easy.

Well...perhaps not _easy_ but understandable, the outcome they sought was always the same, victory. But now, that outcome was still visible, although it was shifting. Victory had become elusive, defeat prevelant and nefarious...and the cause for that defeat had become a threat from without and within. Darkness loomed from within the ranks of the Covenant, darkness that had no form, just a swirling miasma of danger that refused to form. No vision, no image could be divined, all that was known was that it was _there_. Eilivanit hovered, brooding over the visions that would not come to the Clan of Divine Guidance.

Visions that tained desicions that had to be made.

"It does not go well, does it Holy Arbiter?" Viewers of Dreams Clansfemale Tizzariant said, her Golden armor shining in the faint light cast from the window wall that looked out across the Great Cleansing dunes. Her golden robe had deep blue fringes and a stripe down her back of Gray, symbols of her wisdom and place as head of the Clan Viewers of Dreams. Eilivanit did not turn in the air from his position. The leader of all Edenganer did not see the writhing sands as they wracked across the transparent pannel beyond his lidded eyes.

Tizzariant stood silent at the lack of reply, the small fringe of tiny, needle like protrusions that ran from just above her eyes to her spine waivered slightly. All female Edenganer possesed these ridges, many of them ornamented with minute runes or symbols. Tizzariant's were smooth, devoid of ornamentation.

"You are...nervous, Clansfemale." Eilivanit said softly, and turned in place. He still sat, cross-legged, a meter off the hard stone floor in the featureless chamber. His hollow, lifeless-looking eyes were lidded, his mouth, filled with rows of deadly teeth was closed. The Paladin did not need his eyes to see the other.

"I cannot betray my emotions to you Holy Arbiter." Tizzariant said, and bowed her head.

"Please, meditate with me on this quandry that we face." Eilivanit said and gestured with a clawed hand to a point in the air. Tizzariant's spines waivered again and she steped closer, then levitated to a point slightly lower than Eilivanit's.

"My clan is...uneasy Holy Arbiter."

"Understandable. The visions are becoming...cloudy, are they not?" Eilivanit asked gently.

"Yes." Tizzariant said, her spines twitching in a small ripple.

"I too have felt it Clansfemale, and I am as concerned as your members are. Things are not going as we had supposed. The great enemy is more powerful than we had believed, and there are many more threats facing the Childeren of the Covenant than we had ever dreamed possible." Eilivanit said, and twitched a vicious looking claw towards the floor between them. The shape of the demon rose from the stone, standing still between the two.

"A...NEXTGen Spartan they call themselves. We long saw this threat...but never understood the import of it." Tizzariant said quietly, her spines flattened, displaying her nervousness.

"And there are others? Are there not? Much weaker, but still...formidable?" Eilivanit said, and his clawed finger twitched again, the shape of a Spartan morphed smoothly from the solid stone to one of a Jedi Knight.

"Yes...although there are two groups of them though, the Old and the New. The New are mostly weak and divided, little exists to keep them unified or strong beyond the actions of their so-called 'leader', a human known as Luke Skywalker. Their powers are very meager for the most part, and few have proven themselves capable or exceptional. Both our own visions and Paladins in the field have shown us this." Tizzariant said.

"But what of the Old? They are...different?" Eilivanit asked.

"Yes...these are, clones of old Jedi. All of them powerful, all of them united in cause. Though 'taken' from across the history of their galaxy, they all share similar purpose and experiance, and are guided by a unified council and leadership. They are exceptionally powerful...most of them more than a match for our own Paladin warriors in single combat...they are the Jedi we should worry about. There are others, magic weilders, psi users, alchemists that sort, but none of them are worth more concern."

"But none the less, threats we must be concerned about." Eilivanit said and the stone figure disapeared into the floor.

"There is...another Holy Arbiter. One which I think that none of us are eager to adress." Tizzariant's spines twitched and then weaved back and forth. Anxiety...mixed with fear.

"Please Clansfemale." Elivanit waved a hand and the stone entry to the room sealed into a seamless stretch of wall.

"I thank you Holy Arbiter. I do not worry over our own Paladin loyalty...but I do worry over the possiblity of angst."

"Angst?"

"Yes...for this threat that has been seen does not come from without...it comes from within."

"I see." Eilivanit said, carefuly guarding his own expressions and thoughts. Even though male Edenganer did not have head spines, their scaled, black faces and muzzles betrayed more than any outsider could ever understand. And even without expressions, his thoughts and emotions were more than readily acessable to Tizzariant. No Edenganer could ever hope to shield their mind from even the most cursory or half-hearted mental probe from one of it's own species, such things were impossible. But Tizzariant did not press her mind on his to gague his thoughts and feelings, not because he was Holy Arbiter, leader of all Edenganer...rather because he _was_ Edenganer, and worthy of that respect.

"Yes Holy Arbiter. It is, nefarious, and recent." Tizzariant gestured with both her hands around them, and they were suddenly surrounded by nine prominent figures, perfect representations of the nine Dark Lords of the Hegemony. Dark commanders recruited into the ranks of the armies, lured by power, prestige, weath and control. Mercenaries, at their basest levels, selling their skills and abilities in return for near limitless armies, fleets and worlds lying waiting, vulnerable. Behind these figures lurked other forms of stone, filling the chamber with more indistinct forms and shapes. All of the living stone sculptures moved, as if they truly were filled with life, not stone being effortlessly manipulated by Tizzariant's thoughts.

"The Dark Lords? Yes...I have had my eyes on them since the Prophets decreed that they were to be located, members of the Clan Shadow Slayers have studied them. I have not been..._comforted_ by the information that I have recived. They are, self-serving and I believe that is by far the kindest wording I can use. They care not for the Children of the Covenant, care little for the orders of the Prophets, and beyond that, I can only see their motives as being personal...revenge."

"That is a kinder assesment than the Clan Viewers of Dreams have seen matters. The visions are clouded and few, but they are there, and they demand attention." Tizzanit said. Elivanit did not move, did not make the slightest gesture, his black eyes merely watching Tizzanit intently. Tizzanit sighted and sliced her clawed hand downwards. The stone figures dropped into the floor, leaving the chamber empty besides the two of them.

"We have seen strife, conflict, war...civil war. All stemming from these nine and others. We do not know how, but it is easy to surmize." Tizzanit said.

"Yes, the information that I have recived has said much about their own self-indulgent goals and obessions. Nothing that could hope to give anything of value at the end. But the prophets are shrewd." Eilivanit said.

"How so?" Tizzanit asked.

"Each, for all their self-centered objectives is an asset to our cause, they all have enemies amongst the Sentient Coalition. And they are all driven madly to have their own revenge against them. The resources of the Hegemony give them that, and they're more than willing to utilize them. So long as they do, the Prophets see no qualms about using them as needed."

"And do you have qualms High Aribter?" Tizzanit asked, tentatively.

Eilivanit didn't respond to that for a long time. His face betrayed no emotion as he thought on the matter, and it made Tizzanit very nervous.

"I feel that we should not let down our guard...things are far too dangerous already." Eilivanit said. From the depth's of the High Arbiter's mind a voice came rising up to his conciousness.

_High Arbiter, my deepest apologies for this interuption. There is a spacecraft coming towards the _Precipice_. It is broadcasting the correct clearances, and states that one of the Dark Lords is onboard._ The voice said.

_I see. We shall see them in the Grand viewing Chamber._ Eilivanit replied.

_By your command High Arbiter._

"So they have decided to come see us then?" Tizzanit asked softly. Eilivanit was not suprised that the Clansfemale of the Clan Viewers of Dreams knew his thoughts, viewing the future was their gift, and such close events were hard to misinterpret.

"Yes. So they have." Eilivanit said. He stopped hovering and stood, Tizzanit mirrored his movements. With a nod, another passage opened in the rounded wall and the two began to walk upwards towards the Grand Viewing Chamber.

Wheras the four Clans had their accomidations deep within the caverns and passages of the Precipice, the Grand Viewing Chamber was situated at the summit of the mountain. It was the chamber in which all visitors and messangers to the Edenganer came and spoke to the heads of the Clans. As such, it was as epic and elegant as possible.

The chamber itself was set into a natural bowl at the summit enclosed in a massive dome of clear-stone alloy, giving all present a magnificient view of the great sandy wastelands beyond, and the clear blue sky above. In front of this awesome view was a raised seat, itself carved from the stone of the mountain. In it sat Eilivanit, Holy Arbiter, and behind him stood four Edenganer honor guards, one each from the four clans. Set on either side, forming a crecent were four other chairs, two on either side of the central dias. Tizzanit sat in one on Eilivanit's right side, flanked by the golden honor guards of her own clan. Clansmale Kritsinatit sat on Tizzanit's right, his black armor of the Clan Shadow Slayers matched with those of his two honor guards and seemed to swallow up all light. On Eilivanit's left sat Pirrizanit, Eilivanit's replacement as head of the Clan of Divine Guidance, with Eilivanit's selection as Holy Arbiter, she had ascended to leader of the clan since Holy Arbiter was considered to be one with all clans. Seated on the right of Pirrizanit was Yiritanit Clansmale of the Clan Smiters of Evil, his silver armor gleamed as a sharp contrast to Kritsinatit on the opposite end of the crescent.

Leading up to the crescent seats was a long raised walkway, dropping away on either side to unnartural darkness. Either side of the walkway was lit by a series of fires of incendiary liquid burining in carved bowls, casting light in flickering patterns to augment the diffuse illumination that came from high above, suppresed by tinting in the armored glass. The effect that an approaching visitor would have would be walking from darkness into the blazing brightness of the light and into the presence of the leaders of the Edenganer.

But this visitor was one posessed of darkness. Great darkness.

His arrival was unexpected, and his transport was in that of a Yuhuzzan Vong transport vessel, not a normal Covenant ship. The bio-organic systems of the Vong ship more pleasing to this evil creature than anything else in the Covenant fleet. His entourage was made up almost entirely of Yuhuuzan Vong warriors...apart from his own, personal guards and followers.

Death Eaters.

Lord Voldemort was the first of the Dark Lords to come to the Precipice. Of course, the others would come one by one, in their own ships, with their own guards and followers. Blustering and powerful, attempting to cow the Paladin. They were fools to think that any such simple shows of power could hope to impress the Edenganer. IT was futile for the simple reason that the Edenganer had a different mindset than the Dark Lords, or anyone in the Hegemony could contemplate. They were there to serve, not in the mindless slavery of the Conscripts, or the fearful obedience of the subjugated. They served because it was in their hearts and souls to serve and defend the Children of the Covenant. _That _was their only goal, nothing paltry and fleeting like power or prestige.

Protection, service.

And that was something that none of the Dark Lords could hope to understand. Let alone Voldemort, someone who power and prestige were the only things that mattered.

Voldemort strode down the ramp of the living Yuhuzzan Vong ship flanked by the black robed and masked forms of his Death Eaters. Their identities were shoruded behind their masks, allowing them to take comfort in their anonymnity. The Vong warriors that were behind these wore their armor, and carried amphistaves. They were bedecked for war and wanted all to know that. At their head, Voldemort strode, oblivious to the guards that walked behind him, and oblivious to the Clansmembers of the Shadow Slayers that watched them march through the corridors of power. Wheither Voldemort knew they were there -which was unlikely- and simply felt them beneath contempt, or was truly ignorant of there presence was debatable. But no escort openly revealed themselves to him, none was needed because the only path available to outsiders was that from the landing pad to the Grand Viewing Chamber where the Clan leaders waited.

Voldemort was unfazed by the darkness that coulded his vision as he strode the path to stand before the Edenganer leaders. For all that any observer could tell, he was insulted simply by having to come to them.

"I wonder what gives you the impression that I would so graciously accept this insult." Voldemort said, a sneer to his words.

"No insult was intended, my lord." Eilivanit said, emotionless. His words were lies.

"I doubt that."

"I am sorry for that impression, my lord."

Voldemort raised his wand, as did his Death Eaters. In response, the Yhuzzan Vong did the same, amphistaves raised they fell into a line behind the leading wizards, ready for combat. Clearly they'd expected this and wanted to make a clear show of force against these Paladins. The Edenganer did nothing, didn't move, didn't blink, didn't react in the slightest.

"I doubt _that_ even more." Voldemort said, wand pointed directly at Eilivanit. The Holy Arbiter cocked his head to one side and then slumped over, resting his chin on a red gauntleted hand. A small, vicious smile raised one side of his demonic face.

"You are correct, my lord." Eilivanit replied, smugly, his final words bearing no respect whatsoever. Voldemort snarled and his wand hand dipped slightly in response to such a flagrant statement.

"_What?_" Voldemort snapped.

"You are correct, I don't care about you or your parlor tricks." Eilivanit replied, tapping one claw against his needle teeth, his black eyes stared unblinking at the humans leveling their wands at him.

"Your impudence will not go un-punished. _Crucio!_" Voldemort screamed and the spell whipped through the air and infused the Holy Arbiter with racking waves of mind numbing pain. Enough to make any mortal creature writhe in pain and agony.

But Eilivanit didn't so much as blink at the assault. He merely sat there, waiting...even seeming bored. The shock from the Death Eaters was palpable, the Vong did nothing, not exactly knowing what to expect. Voldemort however lowered his wand and stared at the Paladin with narrowed eyes.

"As I said. I don't care." Eilivanit said once more. He raised his other hand and snapped his fingers. The sound was sharp in the semi-silence of the chamber and it echoed slightly. Without a word, the Vong circled, looking for an attack of some kind. The Death Eaters did the same, slower than the Vong though. They stood waiting, Voldemort's eyes not leaving Eilivanit's black orbs, neither one blinking. The silence of the room turned opressive, and Voldemort was the first to break it.

"So what now, Paldin?" He asked.

"You are not our masters, Dark Lord. I do not care in whose name you command, we take our orders directly from the Holy ones, directly from the Prophets. Their orders are writ, and our duty is a simple one, one you could not fathom if you tried. You are servants of the Prophets, you were selected because your capablities aided the designs of the Prophets. You were given the _gift_ of service to the Hegemony, and the honor of serving to defend the children of the Covenant. You are being granted a gift that is beyond compare, you are being _granted_ the chance to _serve_. I know that this is difficult to comprehend for someone such as you, that your petty ambitions for power and control are so _infentesimal _besides the true might of the Hegemony and the duty to protect it's Children. But that is what we serve Dark Lord, the Children of the Covenant. That is what you shall serve, otherwise, we shall have to repeat this demonstration." Eilivanit said, smoothly. Before Voldemort could say anything, the Paladin stood and snapped the fingers on one hand.

"Do you think I'll bow to you?" Voldemort said, his voice deadly soft.

"No, I expect you to realize that the demonstration is already over." Eilivanit said, and gestured behind Voldemort. Reluctantly the Dark Lord turned to survey the scene that had happened in total silence behind him.

For all it's lethality and combat ability, Voldemorts entourage was eliminated by stealth. Perhaps if they were still alive, they would find consolation in the fact that they'd been beaten by the best masters of stealth in the universe, the members of Clan Shadow Slayers. But they were dead so consolation meant nothing. The Vong hadn't even time to ready their amphistaves which were plucked from their hands like toys from mis-behaving children. They were all disarmed and dealt with quickly, in quite brutal ways. Necks and backs snapped, some were ripped in half like so much tissue paper. The last thing that one of the Vong warriors saw was his own beating heart as it was punched through his chest by a Clansfemale of the Shadow Slayers, her fist passing effortlessly through the torso armor of the Vong warrior.

The Death Eaters were let off far lighter. None of them were killed. They were disarmed, all their wands snapped like twigs before being hoisted off the ground and held, unmoving, and impotent by the Clansmembers.

Voldemort looked at the scene and then slowly turned around to face Eilivanit.

"So, you have one this round, you shall loose the next." Voldemort said with menace. Eilivanit snapped his fingers again, and before Voldemort could react, his wand was plucked from his hand and snapped, the pieces falling to the ground at his feet. The Dark Lord spun and snarled at the looming figure of the Shadow Slayer standing next to him, completely hidden until he wished to be seen.

"There will be no next round, Voldemort. Leave and do the bidding of the Prophets, and tell the other Dark Lords, they will do the same." Eilivanit said. Voldemort turned and left, his disarmed...and humiliated Death Eaters leaving behind him. Their silence the only response to Eilivanit's words. After the dark wizards had left, Eilivanit sat down again, staring at the fallen bodies of the Yhuzzan Vong warriors.

"Prepare measures to eliminate them." The Holy Arbiter said without elaboration. The other heads of the Clans nodded in unspoken agreement.

**Hydra Cordatus, Xenos Artifact World,**

**Xenos Artifact Archeological dig AB94,**

**August 15th, 2554 UST**

Hydra Cordatus was a dead world. Lifeless and devoid of anything that might intrest miners or colonists. It's only point of interst was to Xeno Archeologists and research into the massive and far reaching ruins that covered the surface of this world. Ruins of a civilization which was thought to pre-date humanity...pre-date even the Eldar by millions of years. In the chaos following the 13th Black Crusade of Abbadon the Despoiler, Hydra Cordatus was another world too trivial to worry the Administratum or the Tech priests, or the Inquisition. The Eye of Terror loomed far larger and more prominent than some desolate world. But for one woman, her gaze did not falter from Hydra Cordatus. To her, the surface of that planet was a wraping of a great treasure that lay deep beneath it's surface, hidden for millenia, since the dawn of time eternal. A treasure that had been grown and added to over the aeons and millenium of the rule of the Imperium. A treasure which could lead the Imperium of Mankind into another Golden Age.

Lady Jena Orchiel stood at the armorglass viewport that looked out over the desolate surface of Hydra Cordatus. Her dark eyes watched as the lifeless world beyond the view panes did not stur beneath her gaze.

"Lady Inquisitor...we have breached the final vault..." A meek voice said from behind her. She turned, her dark hair and hem of her long elegant gown spining as she did so.

"Ahead of schedule, a wise action Acolyte." Lady Orchiel said as she walked past the quiet, young Adeptus Machinous acolyte, his face barely disfigured by the extensive augmentations that their ilk covered themselves with. Behind her, her followers trailed behind like some deadly parade, at the forefront were Kroot, the Xenos useful in their own way to the Inquisitor. Behind them a variety of other warriors and follwers trailed along. She walked unhesitatingly through the corridors of the Archeological dig's field laboratories. Her foot steps were muted in the cold sterile passages.

"Lady Inquisitor! I must warn you that an unknown xenos entity was located inside the final valt. They are proving...difficult." The Acolyte said, trotting along, the sound of a bolter firing punctuating his words.

"Send in the Ultramarines then." Orchiel said sounding bothered rather than worried.

"Y-Y-Yes lady Inquisitor!" The Acolyte said and silenced himself, no doubt comunitcating through some node implanted into his brain. From ahead the sounds of bolter fire and some...strange xenos weapon were heard. Above this rapport of weapons fire, a bestial alien cry was heard coming from the throat of a dying warrior. Without a word, the Kroot that trailed behind Lady Inquisitor Orchiel moved forward, forming a phalanx of flesh between her and any possible threat. The Inquisitor and her renunite looked past them, her lofty air of superiority not shattered by the conflagration ahead of her. Around the bend in the corridor, nine towering armored forms marched along. Members of the Adeptus Astartes Ultramarines. Their massive adumantium shells trudged ahead, bolters and other weapons held ready.

As they passed, Lady Orchiel gestured and the Kroot marched forward, in close pursuit of the Ultramarines, the Lady was in no mood to wait for anything. This vault was to be her crowning glory, the pinnacle of her plan to bring the Imperium of Mankind to rebirth.

It was her triumph, and she would not wait.

The procession rounded the corner and had the perfect view of the carnage that the Ultramarines were wreaking upon the pitiful Xenos guards.

The Veteran Sergeant led his Marines as they cut a swath into the defenders. His sanctified plasma pistol sending forth bolts of incandescent plasma and simply vaporizing the entire upper body of one of the bestial warriors. They looked formidable enough to cut a swath through Imperial Guardsmen, even Storm Troopers and Ogyrns...but these were Ultramarines. These pitiful Yautja as they called themselves couldn't hope to win.

The Space marines fought as a deadly unit, the Yautja fought as a disjounted group of individuals, each seeming to vie for their own glory.

Foolishness.

Lady Orchiel watched with pleasure as one was ripped apart by rounds from a Storm Bolter before having it's head squashed by a power fist. Another of the marines cleaved a xeno in half from head to groin with his power sword sending two equal halves falling to the floor. One of the xeno's staff blades skipped off the thick adumantium of one marine's shoulder pauldron, the marine grabed the staff with one hand and crushed it before he turned his chainsword on the creature, sawing it apart at the mid-rift. None of the xenos seemed capable of doing more than scratching the armor of the Ultramarines. One by one the xenos were not just killed...they were annihilated.

Once of the xenos fired a shoulder mounted plasma cannon at the Ultramarine Sergeant. The blast flared brightly against his armor and when it subsided, all that was left was a bit of dis-coloration. The Sergeant turned his Adumantium armored head in the direction of the xeno and raised his bolt pistol. The Yautja didn't even try to dodge as bolter rounds tore through the air and slammed into his body. The Sergeant turned slowly, and the other members of the tactical team formed into a combat 'V' formation, watching for further attacks.

"Oh my, you have defeated the guardians so...messily..." A small disembodied voice said. The Space marines watched the surrounding area, bolters shifting back and forth as they scanned. From the center of their 'V' a small orb materialized looking at the phosphorescent gore splattered warriors that turned and faced it. The orb seemed not to care, instead zipping around and examining the dead Yautja lying on the floor.

"You seemed to have no trouble with them. Alais, you must be of the Reclaimer's caliber, although your armor is much more formidable."

Lady Inquisitor Orchiel stepped forwards from behind her Kroot phalanx and faced the hovering orb.

"I have come for your secrets Caretaker. I am Lady Inquisitor Orchiel of the Ordo Xenos. Your secrets are by rights mine as a creation of the Forerunner Alliance." Lady Orchiel said, her voice full of it's commanding presence that was her right as a member of the Inquisition.

"Ah, I see. It was only a matter of time before this place was uncovered by the experiments." The orb said aloud, but not adressing anyone, it was merely thinking out loud.

"Caretaker, I have come for the residents of this Library. They are needed." Lady Orchiel said, commandingly.

"Ah well, alright then." The caretaker said and before anyone could move, Lady Orchiel and the orb she adressed as 'The Caretaker', were gone in a flash of light.

Lady Orchiel staggered slightly as she was rematerialized in a small observation room, far removed from the Ultramarines and her renunite of followers. The teleportation that the Caretaker used was far removed from any that she had experianced when a techpriest weilded his creation. She blinked slightly and shook her head but otherwise felt none of the unplesant side effects of human teleportation...such as having a limb buried in a wall...

"I suppose you wish to know my name, I am Caretaker as you said, your floundering logic bears rewarding...and you identified yourself as what Reclaimer Species?" The orb said, blinking as it spoke. Lady Orchiel focused in on it's voice and then looked out through the open observation room.

"As I said, Caretaker, I am Lady Inquisitor Orchiel, I have come for occupants of this Repository." Lady Orchiel said, walking up to the low holographic controls that sat inches from a seemingly endless abyss. As she ran her fingers across the surface of the semi-solid, semi-existent controls she felt a warmth flow through her body. Not stemming from the contact with the alien control interface, but from the satisfaction that she felt. She shifted her gaze outwards to the massive interior of the repositiory. Around her it looked like the heart of a galactic star field, points of white light twinkled in the distance, legion in number as the glittered like diamonds on black velvet. She turned slowly looking at the near infinite number of points of white.

"So which do you wish to have, Lady Inquisitor?" Caretaker said, floating around her like an over-large insect. Orchiel looked at him and smiled. She withdrew the small data-slate she carried and held it before the ocular input point on the Caretaker. The small Forerunner machine hovered for a moment, blinking as it studied the information.

"As you wish." The Caretaker said, non-plussed.

Orchiel turned and looked towards the center of the chamber. Within the small room a raised cylinder sat, empty for the moment. Within the clear armor-glass walls of the cylinder, a brilliant flash of white burst into existence and then vanished, leaving Lady Orchiel blinded for a few moments to the contents of the cylinder. She blinked quickly, rubbing her eyes slightly.

Then looked up at the contents of the cylinder.

Now the cylinder was filled with a human, floating within the contents of the Forerunner replication tank, unmoving, unaware of the outside world. As though he had been sleeping there for the ten thousand years since his death. He was a creature of near perfection and viewed by lesser mortals as a god amongst men. His pale skin was un-marred by the battles that he had fought in eons before, his dark blonde hair floating in the null-grav field he was suspended in. His white wings folded behind his back as he hung there.

Sanguinius. Primarch of the Blood Angels, the man whose loyalty to the God-Emperor was unquestioned, he who faced the arch-traitor Horus and remained true in his loyalty, even to his own death at the hands of th Arch-Traitor.

"By the God-Emperor...it _is_ true..." Lady Orchiel said, disbelieving of the sight before her eyes, even if it was why she was here. She reached her hand forward, delicately placing it on the glass of the cylinder, examining the sight before her. To most humans in the Imperium, Sanguinius was a legend, as much a myth as the other Primarchs. His story and even his appearance the stuff of stories told and exagarated over centuries. But here was the real man, floating before her.

"Yes, the other specimens are in exquisite condition, the same as this. They lack any negative psionic influence or taint of the 'Warp' no mutation or any other such impurities. They are pristene and perfect mental duplicates."

"Exquisite."

"Do you wish me to revive all of them?" The Caretaker said.

"All of them on the list, yes. I have plans to revive the other." Lady Inquisitor Orchiel said quietly.

"I see, the preperations shall be begun immedeately. And what of the two marked unknown?" The Caretaker said as Orchiel looked back out at the millions of points of light, knowing that there were five others that rested here, clones of their great ancestor Primarchs, and yet identical in every single respect to their forebearers.

"I trust you and all your potent xeno technology know of their locations?" Lady Orchiel said, her tone dismissing even the possiblity that the Caretaker did not know.

"Of coruse."

"Then if you would be so kind as to put the information on the data-slate, they must be retrieved."

Two remained isolated and hidden within the Warp, soon to be returned, and one remained in stasis...soon to recieve assistance from the nanaomachines recoved from New Callisto. And the last, the greatest...he would soon be returned from his living death as well.

Lady Inquisitor Orchiel smiled, her plot was unfolding just as she had intended, and soon the Age of Imperium would end...

...and the Age of Restoration would begin.

**Holy Terra, The Imperial Palace,**

**The Golden Throne Room,**

**September 1st, 2554 UST**

The Golden Throne room was a tribute to the glory and awe that was the Imperium of Mankind. An artifice of arcane and ancient power, imbuned with such functions and processes whose complexity was so great that all understanding had passed beyond the mere mortals that maintained it's hallowed systems. Only one man could truly understand what the Golden Throne was in it's entirety, and he was more a living god than mere man. The God Emperor of Mankind's final commands after his fateful battle with Horus were to construct the throne. Part life support device, part psychic amplifyer, part...something else... it provided the means for the God-Emperor to continue to guide the Imperium from his living death.

Defended now by troops beyond number, starships, fixed fortifications, space marines, and even the mythic Adeptus Custodes, no enemy had ever set foot within the confines of the Imperial Palace, let alone within the chamber where the phsyical body of the God-Emperor lay, silent, unmoving...waiting. No enemy ever would set foot there and disturb the body of the leader of humankind. Nor would that body ever rise again, crippled and mortaly wounded after his battle with Horus, the God-Emperor would probably never live as lesser mortals did again. Or so it was said.

But such a thing was before these times. Before New Callisto. Before Hydra Cordatus. Before a great many other things.

One man had walked the endless hallways of the Imperial Palace, wandering from the fringes of the Imperium on his own quest. Untill his path had been crossed by a member of the Inquisition and his goals had changed, augmented. He carried with him now a small vial of the nano-machines that had been retrived from New Callisto by General Skaral at the behest of the Inquisition, and now his goal was to take them to the resting place of the God-Emperor and heal the lord of all Humanity.

Fallen one-zero-zero...Space Marine of the Dark Angels. Defender of Humanity...decived by Luther into betraying Lion El'Jonson his Primarch and his Battle Brothers. Perhaps the last of the 'Fallen' to remain hunted by the Dark Angels. He carries the broken sword of El'Jonson to be placed before the God-Emperor. His journey has been long and tiring, but now it is nearly at it's end. His footsteps echoed in the almost deserted corridors. It was past midnight and most of the dwelers of the palace had gone to their perspective beds. The only occupants of the corridors were the guards, Adeptus Custodes standing silent vigil over the Palace tomb of the God-Emperor. Cypher did not draw more than cursory notice, even by the Adepts, he wore the simple robes of a scribe, his face shrouded, and his identification slates in order. There was no reason for him to draw their attention.

For if he drew attention, he would die. Space Marine or not...he would die quickly.

If he were lucky.Cypher's path had been marked by the Inquisitor down to the points in the corridor that he should walk on, and when he should walk on them. Such comprehensive instructions were to avoid the more arcaine, and mystical defenses of the palace. His path had taken him all over the epic fortress, and now, finally he had reached the final step, he drew nearer to the Golden Throne room with each step. As did his anxiety. He knew the risks he took, he had known that ever since he had taken El'Jonson's sword and begun his travels to Holy Terra to set it before the God-Emperor. But now, as he was mere steps away from the objective of his long and arduous travels.

He walked around a bend in the corridor, stepping on a series of raised stones in the order that the data-slate required, before moving on...and was overtaken with awe at the chamber he entered. He almost took a step back, but realized quickly that doing so would throw off the path he was to take, caught himself. He craned his head back to look at the grandure of it, the cathedral esque style of the room was normal, but the epic size of it was beyond comprehension. Cypher gazed upwards towards a ceiling long lost to the dull light of small burning flames, and the lumination of the night's sky from massive windows that seemed large enough that a Titan could step through them...and seem small next to the figures made of stained glass. Immense carvings and colums covered the room, their sequences of battles or images of Saints seemd to gaze downwards with majestic dominance. Cypher began to walk across the chamber, his gaze attempting to take in every square inch of the chamber at once, knowing that he might not get the chance to gaze upon it ever again, even if this audacious plan did work.

It seemed to take ages to cross the space, but he felt as though it went all to fast.

For Cypher felt fear...

Fear at what was to come...

His hand fell upon the comparatively simple door behind which lay the God Emperor and he pressed it open. An electric sensation of giddy anticipation flwed through him, displacing his sense of fear. Cypher felt disoriented by the sudden surging changes of emotion, Fear and giddiness...he shook his head firmly and blinked, breathing slowly for a few moments and steadying himself. A cool rush of air flowed over him as he stood before the cracked open door, ruffling the hem of his scribes robes. For a heartbeat, Cypher thought he heard a voice come from somewhere just beyond his vision Cypher couldn't hear any coherent words, but he was almost sure that he heard something. He glanced around at the Adeptus Custodes lining the walls of the immense chamber. None of them moved to stop him, they knew that the priests which listned to the God-Emperor's whispered commands often called for scribes at odd hours, he was not out of place.

He pressed on the door and pushed it fully open, stepping into the holiest off all places in all the worlds of the Imperium of Mankind.

The room was dark and small, a sharp contrast to the immense cathederal esque room that he had passed through. Torches were positioned amongst kneeling scribes, ditfuly recording the portents and predictions of one preist as he knelt reverently near the God-Emperor. Cypher inhailed sharply as his eyes fell upon the form of the God-Emperor. He was sitting upon what actually was a gold colored throne that radiated with an brilliant inner light. Tubes and and strange wires connected the God-Emperor to the throne and it's vital systems. A small halo above his head worked to amplify his immense psychic powers by a method that was lost to even the members of the Machine Cult. Cypher gazed at the face of the God-Emperor and felt as though the very breath from his lungs had been taken from him, such a sense of reverence and awe had filled him. He, nor nearly any other mortal man had seen the face of the God-Emperor in millenia. And now he stood, feet away, gazing at it.

"I serve you my Emperor, my God." Cypher said as he started to walk towards the God-Emperor. His strides measured and determined. Now was the time for his crusade to be fufilled, now was the time that the God-Emperor was to be resurected. Cypher raised his hands and drew back the hood of his robes, revealing himself. He ignored the scribes hushed challenges and stepped past the priest before he could react. His passing disrupted the fine tendrils of incence that burned around the room.

"Who are you? What do you think you are doing!" The priest said, shocked.

"I serve you my Emperor." Cypher said, withdrawling the small vial from deep within the folds of the robes. The orange light the fires cast made the nano-machines within it glimmer with a bronze like tint as the Fallen held it up and removed the cap.

"What are...By the Throne! GUARDS!" The priest screamed seeing something in Cyphers hand that had no buisness being there. The Adeptus Custodes would be there in moments, and Cypher would be dead. The fallen, renegade Space Marine tipped over the vial and the suspension of nano-machines drizzled out and fell upon the bare skin of the God-Emperor's hand, dissapearing into the flesh like water being gulped into sand. As the last tendrils of nanomachines left the vial, he let it drop to the floor, the hardend plastic shattering on the obsidian floor.

Cypher did not hear the screams of the Priest, or the sounds of the scribes running from the room. Nor did he hear the deep, vicious shouts of the Adeptus Custodes as they thundered into the room, Gladius swords and Power Halbreds ready for combat. He did not feel as they grabbed him from behind, for Cypher's eyes were locked on the God Emperor, his gaze unable to shift from the sight that he witnessed and consumed his entire mortal existence.

The God-Emperor...moved.

And everyone else froze. The body of the God-Emperor rose up from it's seated position, cables and wires embedded into his flesh falling away as he stretched his arms and muscles which had lain dormant for aeons. But even as his body moved...things seemed to move within it. Cypher stared at the flesh of the God-Empeor...he saw silvery ripples wash over the aged skin, taking away lines of age and scars of battle. The Empeor paused and lifted his arms, clenching his fists carefully, and then gazed at the assemblage before him.

"I have...rested for a...very long, time." The God-Emperor said, slowly, tentatively, with a voice that had not been heard for ages. He closed his eyes and brought his hand to his throat. His eyes opened slowly and he turned his gaze down towards Cypher.

"I thank you, Marine. Arise." The God-Emperor said, beconing Cypher forward. The Fallen stood up slowly, the grip of the Adeptus Custodes falling away as they fell to their knees, heads bowed in reverence. Cypher came to his feet, but did not gaze upon the God-Emperor.

"I know...of the treachery that...you...you and your...bretheren...were _decieved_ into..." The God-Emperor said, slowly, methodically.

"I beg your mercy, my God." Cypher said quietly.

"You...you have proven yourself. Your sword..." The Emperor said, reaching towards Cypher, expectatnly. Smoothly, the Fallen presented the shattered sword to him, still within it's sheath. It was the sword of El'Jonson, broken in his battle on Caliban with Luther. The Sword that Cypher had carried for so long. The God-Emperor held the sword and gripped the handle. He drew the sword, the blade finally whole, through some power which could only be commanded by the God Emperor.

Cypher felt his mouth drop open in awe at the sight.

"I feel...a great many things...shall change in this new age." The God- Emperor said, raising the blade high, the keen edge glinting in the firelight before he sheathed the blade and handed it back to Cyper.

"I am at your service my Lord." Cypher said reverently.

"I know Marine. You, and more whose numbers are beyond reconing. They shall _all _be needed in this new age."

* * *

And that's a chapter.

A/N:

Alright, I know that all of you are at least marginally pissed at the lag here.

But I'll be honest, this shit is not easy for me to do. I can't just bang out a chapter in a week and say 'there you go'. I can't post this stuff untill I _know_ that it's what FFH deserves, until I know it's what you readers _deserve._ You are my fans, you enjoy FFH for what it is, for what I want it to be and represent. I can't push off something second rate, I can't just write. I need it to be worth it because you guys deserve decent material, _good_ material. And I don't know if saying that you should wait for something good that have something bad is a worthy response.

I deserve the berating that you people probably want to give me.

Predalien2000 on AIM.

Look me up and scream all you want. Email me at send all the hate mail you want. I'll say the same thing every time;

I'd rather do this right than let down your expectations.

For 6 months I _couldn't_ do it right, and it killed me every time I looked at that computer, every time I tried to write, every damn time I had an idea and couldn't make it work. I'm sorry, but nothing was _right,_ nothing worked, and I tried, I really did.

It's back now, I hope.

Next

Chapter 14: **_Minds of the Masters of War..._**

Thrawn's will be done.


	16. Chapter 14: Minds of the Masters of War

**A/N: **Thank you all for being so understanding.

Also, only one comment on Heywood Floyd? Has no-one out there read 2001: A Space Odessy? Or 2010? My, my, my...I endeavor to take the most hard sci-fi I know and mesh it with pure fantasy sci-fi...and only one of you notices

* * *

**Chapter 14: _Minds of the Masters of War..._**

_Here I thought you were a brilliant Strategist, but it turns out you're simply a lucky fool._

-Shuichi Minamino

_In the absense of orders, go find something and kill it._

-General Erwin Rommel

_No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country, he won a war by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his._

-General George S. Patton

* * *

**Super Star Destroyer _Thrawn_, Deep Space near the Naboo System,**

**Flagship of Grand Admiral Anjek, Primary Operations Center,**

**September, 2554 UST**

Grand Admiral Anjek's desicion to abandon Filmar IV as the base of High Command hadn't gone over well with the General Assembly or the Inner Council, but his backers were powerful enough to make the decision stick. He controled the Imperial Navy, which even along side the Human Alliance and the Klingons was still the strongest space fleet in the Coalition, and Supreme Commander Palleon controled the Empire as a whole. Those two cards were more than enough to make the Coalition go along with whatever Anjek wanted or needed. Expecaily with the very final severing of the USS from Coalition membership. The Coalition needed all it could get, especialy with their losing the war seeming more and more likely. Anjek knew that the diplomats and negotiators were working like crazy to keep the component members of the Coalition steady and on the same side. Now more and more members seemed to be eying the USS and it's tenuous 'United Americas' alliance with growing interest. There'd even been a rumor that the Asguard were intersted in following the SGC into their fold.

In the aftermath of the SCPKF's internal warfare, Filmar had been rendered un-fit to be a command center, because of that Anek had his command moved back to his Flagship. All the troops here were Imperial or New Republic, and it was far more secure than any planet bound base. Not that security would matter if the war was lost, and every time Anjek came to the POC, it seemed to be far more likely that would happen than the last.

The Primary Operations Center was not a normal facet of a Super Star Destroyer. Many of the tasks of an SSD were co-ordinated in the bridge, from space combat to planetary assaults, even large fleet actions were confined to the capabilites of a commander's head to visualize and organize the information relayed to him or her. It was far from an optimal arrangement. The first task that Anjek had ordered done was the creation of this combined command center aboard his Flagship. Deep beneath the layers of armor and hull plating of the ship, it was far less exposed than the normal command bridge.

Anjek had no intent of repeating Admiral Piett's inglorious end. Although Kamikazee A-Wing pilots were a non-issue these days, Yevethan D-Type pilots had a habit of doing suicide runs more and more often...

The room itself had been a cargo bay, but the Caridan had converted the entire storage area to house the nessicary equipment to co-ordinate the activties of any combat action. Massive processing units with AI and Droid brains worked to analyze and catagorize all the information that was recived through Capital and Starfighter sensors, verbal reports and strategic level assets. A third of the former bay had been devoted to the mainframes and computer processing gear. Smaller offices and tactical rooms made up another third to allow for ground combat and smaller engagement co-ordination so that it did not take up the main operations room. The final portion of the Center was an open space that boasted a massive hologramatic display area and control consoles. The entire room was customizable to fit any applicable combat action, and the holo display could show a planet, surrounding space, even the galaxy as a whole with a few key strokes. The idea had been modeled on Mount Tantiss's throne room display.

Right now the massive holo was filled with the universe as it was known to the Coalition. A bright green blob filled the center of the screen with innumerable spiral constalations of galaxies filling it. Stabbing deep into it was a solid mass of purple that slowly faded at the edges and the back, the Covenant...it's true size unknown so far. Along another flank the blue of the USS and it's UA territory was small, but growing, brushing up against a swath of black that was tentatively identified as the Imperium of Mankind, this small area was steadily growing outwards though slowly, choping into the territory of the Covenant. On the map, variously colored dots made up what intelligence knew about major fleet dispositions, moving to and fro.

Anjek stood on a raised gantry above the main floor, his hand rested on his command chair that held him above the command crew like a feudal lord standing over his subjects. He reached up and touched a few keys on the arm rest and brought a pair of flat-holos hovering up before the chair. One was an image of the Coruscant theater, the world itself hovering on the line between green and purple, above it the symbols of various fleets and commands danced in the ballet of death as the forces of the New Republic sought an advantage to retake their capital. The other image showed the Filmar IV system and the USS fleet that was preparing to leave. Anjek sighed, the USS was a formidable ally, and now lost to them because of the arrogance of the civilian leadership.

Not for the first time he wondered if they'd still be in this mess if the Emperor was still around.

Or Thrawn.

Anjek sat down in the chair and hit a few more keys, bringing up the cryptic message that he'd recived. Yes, it had bore Thrawn's true name. But that did not mean that it was Thrawn. Even though that name was unknown beyond Palpatine's court, it was still known, and there was no telling who had been told and who knew it. Beyond the name there had been no other identifiers The message had been encrypted and bounced through the Holo net so much that no one had been able to say for sure where it had come from. Even with a hyperdrive, a Galaxy was still a very big place, with a lot of places to check. But there was a far more pressing matter involved than the validity of the message.

It was what it implied, that Thrawn was _alive_.

Which was impossible. He'd been stabbed, through the heart. Anjek had _seen_ it happen, he'd been in the bridge crew pit at Bilbringi. He had seen Rukh stab the Grand Admiral, there was no doubt that he was dead. Of course, every Imperial citizen -and New Republic citizen- had known of the deception done by Tierce, Flim and Disra years ago. That elaborate ruse had convinced most of the Imperial Navy that Thrawn truly had returned. But the ruse of pretending to be Thrawn was not enough, not then. And now...

Anjek knew that he was _good._ He was an excellent fleet commander and starship commander. He was a student of Psychological warfare and an quite good at the same style of winning battles that Thrawn had used, utilizing the mental and psychological weaknesses of a foe against them...but for all his skill, Anjek admitted that he was not a Strategic thinker. His talent was for the battle, not for the war. He'd been placed in command of the Coalition military because of his exploits at the Defense of Earth and the Second Battle of Reach...he knew he was as much a figurehead as a commander. Sadly, that was far from being enough.

Now the Coalition needed someone like Thrawn. They needed _Thrawn_. With the fighting on Coruscant, no one could search for the Forerunner valt there, even if Coruscant was this Galaxy's 'Earth'. And even if it was no one could be absolutely sure that Thrawn would be there. Most Forerunner Archives were made up of humans, and no one knew exactly what to make of that. Some scientists speculated that these archives were specific to the worlds they were based on, but that solution made little sense because the UNSC's archive had been filled with examples of their own culture, but also with Jedi...

Anjek sighed and put his hand to his temple. So many things existed to cause problems these days.

"Thaakar and Vilnet berry juice." Anjek said quietly. Beside him, the small replicator stand lit and a glass appeared. Anjek lifted the chilled container and sipped some of the potent drink. Anjek allowed himself a moment of silence and a blank mind before focusing on the problems once more. With a gesture, he banished the message. Time would tell if it were truly the great man himself, untill then he had a war to run. He sighed and looked up at the immense hologramatic sphere in front of him.

"Control, Theater of Operations CORUSCANT on the main." Anjek said. Below him, one of the technicians entered in the appropriate commands and the main holo appeared to zoom in quickly, centering in on their current galaxy and illuminating the swath of territory that had been designated CORUSCANT. The territory had long since stopped refering to the planet itself and encompased a fourth of the galaxy. A long thrust of Covenant space ran from the outer rim and stabbed into the core worlds through the Rigina Shell and straight at Coruscant. A large pocket of territory extended from Coruscant and into the Deep core of the Koornacht Cluster. Even after the war with the New Republic, the Yevethans had been a dangerous threat to the Galaxy. Combine that with the fickle nature of the New Republic's political body, the Yevethan fleet had rebuilt at an astonishing rate since the disarmarment had been ignored. Now the Galaxy was paying for it as Yevethan forces struck out from the safety of the Cluster where a HALO gate allowed Covenant supplies and reinforcements to stream into Coruscant.

The long road from the edge of the Galaxy, through the outter rim and the Expanse, and into the Rigina Shell to the Core worlds had given the New Republic and the Empire ample opportunity to harass and demolish convoys and reinforcments, weakening the effort on Coruscant. Now with the Koornacht Cluster a fortified supply avenue, the Covenant was getting the supplies and troops that it needed to force the defenders back on their heels, and possibly off the world. There were still supply depots along the origional axis of advance, but they were being used as a secondary supply line to Coruscant. Cutting the supply line to Coruscant wouldn't be as easy as it had been, not with Koornacht in play. The convoys were exceptionally well defended by thrust ships and D-Types as they made their way from the HALO to Coruscant. And besides that, the Koornacht Cluster's shipyards had multiplied dramatically after the disarmarment of the Yevethans became...politically unpopular. Provinding the Covenant with a steady flow of ships, and a caste of extremely tallented engineers whose speciality was reverse-engineering.

The technological edge that the Coalition had enjoyed since shortly after the start of the war was shrinking steadly. Covenant Mobile Suit technology had in some ways _exceeded_ Coalition tech, the only saving grace was the Covenant's own sense of honor and personal glory had kept some of the more deadly innovations from becoming standard. Starship technology was another gap that was shrinking, the new Covenant Battle-Cruiser was an excellent ship in most respects. Although it was geared towards fantastic manuvering and almost fighter like combat, much on par with Federation, Klingon and Romulan capital ships. Rather than having it boast the raw firepower and armor of an Imperial Mk. III or the newest Mk. IV Star Destroyers. The Empire was working on building the brand new Vindicator Class Star Destroyers, and Victory Mk. III's, both incorporating Coalition technology. There'd even been talk at Kuat Drive Yards of beginning to design Super Mk. II Star Destroyers, and Leviathan Class Star Destroyers. But such plans were intangible and even the first ship prototypes were at least six months to a year away. That might expand the starship gap, but the Coalition still held signifigant edges.

Battle tanks, APC's, Ground attack spacecraft and infantry equipment were all superior to Covenant norms. On the whole, Coalition Infantry were better trained, better equiped and better motivated than their Covenant counterparts. But even with their edges, the Coalition was still getting the short end of the stick. The Covenant simply had _more_. More equipment, more troops, more ships, more fighters, more mobile suits, more tanks, more of everything. Their commanders were for the most part terrible at utilizing their forces properly, through their entire command structuret, but there were rumors of a new group of commanders...and of Paladins taking over control from Elite and Brute commanders. Those forces had shown remarkable finesse and ability...

And these Dark Lords...one of which was rumored to be a legendary commander in his world, and his two associate commanders...intelligence was at a loss to specify who they were, all that could be said was that they were dangerous, very dangerous. Anjek brushed a hand over his shaved scalp. His gaunt, pale skin barely had more color than his white Imperial Grand Admiral's uniform, right now both were probably a riot of strange hues reflected in the light of the hologram. He closed his eyes to the color before him and took a deep breath of the slightly cool recycled air.

"Grand Admiral, I have a message from Filmar IV." The ensign at the Communications console said.

"What is it Ensign?" Anjek asked without opening his eyes.

"They want a situation report, sir." The Ensign said cringing.

"Tell them that the situation is the same as it was the last time they asked, perilous." Anjek said, if anything he was becoming very tired of the civilians badgering him about updates and situation reports. All they cared about was how the war made them look, and right now it wasn't making them look very good at all. He smiled at that, it was a sick pleasure to smile at a time like this, but the thought of those vote grubing politicians having to worry about something really cheered the Caridan up. He opened his eyes to look at the map once more. A small point of movement drew his eye, a fleet where there should have been no fleet to speak of. Anjek leaned forward slightly and looked at the green symbol of a fleet, an Imperial fleet jumping in from...the Hapes Cluster... But the entry point was just beyond the Naboo system. A stones throw away from the _Thrawn_ and it's escorts in the galactic sense.

There shouldn't have been any fleet of strength simply 'wandering around' the Hapes Cluster. The Hapans had been exceptionally silent in recent months with the whole Coalition/Covenant War. While technically they were alligned with the New Republic, much

"Captain Olera, have all ships go to high alert." Anjek said over the com system. Without waiting for a reply he focused in on the battle map, without asking for it, the display had been shifted to local space showing the formation of ships that made up his taskforce. It was a motely assortment of vessels, not all of them Imperial, or even New Republic. Twelve Imperial Star Destroyers, a mixture of Mk I-III's made up the core of the fleet surrounding the _Thrawn_. Thrity Victory II Star Destroyers and fourty Mon Calimari Cruisers made up a secondary escort ring, defending the inter spaced Assault Crusiers, Tie Carriers and support ships. Scattered in this core of vessels was a motley assortment of ships from other allies. A pair of Federation Sovergin class Battleships, Romulan Warbirds, Asguard 'O'Neil' class Battleships, a Human Alliance Battleship, a trio of Ferengi Raiders, a Zeon Mobile Suit carrier...the list went on and on. They were all cast offs from the battle at Coruscant, since for the moment the _Thrawn _had turned into the rally point for every ship that had to withdrwal from there. The _Thrawn_ was the only vessel that was completely space worthy and not battle scarred..

Not that it mattered, a Super Star Destroyer was a fleet unto itself.

"I want all information available on that fleet." Anjek said. In a moment, the information was relayed from the Fleet Status console to his command chair, a seres of characters appearing in basic hovering in front of him. Unfortuantely, the list was painfully short, the only clear information was that it was broadcasting Imperial recognition codes.

Nothing else. No ships, no names, no ID's, no nothing.

Danger. In big bold letters, _DANGER._

"Strike that Captain Olera, all hands to battlestations." Anjek said. Without a word of question the Captain of the _Thrawn_ obeyed her orders. Immedeately, klaxons began sounding through the entire length and width of the eight kilometer long warship. Over four hundred _thousand_ crewmen, soldiers, technicians and pilots were interrupted from their normal tasks and sent flying to their battlestations. 250 Turbolaser batteries, 250 Heavy turbolaser batteries, 250 concussion missile launchers, 250 ion cannons and 40 tractor beam arrays began powering up. Twelve squadrons of Tie-Advanced starfighters began launching, along with a wing of assault gunboats and missile boats. Around the small rag-tag armada other ships and crews manned their battlestations, falling into place and preparing their own defenses which were less than meager in comparison to the immense weapon of war that rested amongst them. A sleeping giant which had just awakened. Anjek peered into the main holodisplay as ships switched from red outlines of 'Peace' to the green outlines of 'War' readiness. The Imperial and New Republic vessels were first, followed by Asguard, Klingon and Zeon ships, and finally being rounded out by the Federation vessels. For what it was worth, the armada was ready.

As he watched, his aprehension was rewarded as the supposed 'Imperial' fleet re-oriented and did a precision micro-jump directly in front of the _Thrawn_. Anjek watched silently as the arrowhead forms of Star Destroyers leapt into space before the fleet, all of them older model Mk. I Imperials and Victory Class Star Destroyers. That was the first thing that Anjek noted, most of the older model Imperial I's and Victory I's were fazed out of the fleet quite some time ago. The Mk. II was the mainstay of the Imperial and Victory class with better tech and more firepower. Imperial I's were the backbone of the fleet from before Yavin to just after Hoth... Anjek also noted something else, no Tie Carriers were amongst this fleet...nor where there any Loranar Strike Cruisers, or Lancer Class Frigates...or Sabre class assault Ships... The Sabre class was once thing, they were rare even now, pirate and raider ships that weren't exactly a primary concern of the Empire with the war over. But the lack of Lancer Class Frigates and Tie Carriers were another thing, these were important vessels in the fleet, post-Yavin developments to counter Rebel -ahem, New Republic- Fighter superiority. Commonly deployed post Yavin in nearly all fleets. Loronar Strike Cruisers were a development that came about just after Hoth...modular constructed ships designed to provide quickly constructed ships that could fufill a variety of roles. Mostly, they were backwater patrol ships, but they fufilled a huge gap in the Imperial order of battle, freeing up Star Destroyers for more important roles.

There were an awful lot of Dreadnoughts as well...upwards of fifty of the ships rounded out the fleet, surrounding ten Imperial Class and fifteen Victory Class Star Destroyers.

Anjek felt like something very signifigant had clicked inside his head.

"ID those Dreadnoughts...tell me if they're regular or Slave Rigged models." He said, his eyes focusing in on the formation as it arrayed itself in front of the fleet. The _Thrawn _had taken up a slightly forward position, the rest of the motely fleet sitting behind, shielded from this unknown armada by the Super Star Destroyer that was acting the role of a sheep-dog. The opposing fleet was spreading into what looked like a full screen formation, all the ships forming into a circle one vessel deep, their forward batteries arrayed at the massive _Thrawn_. They looked like they were setting up to keep the Super from running away, but there were far too many dimensions to cover, and Anjek noted that this fleet lacked Interdictor Cruisers.

"Grand Admiral, those Dreadnoughts are all Slave rigged from what we can tell...they...and they look like they're _Katana_ Dreadnoughts." One of the techs said.

"Of course." Anjek replied. None of the ships had launched fighters or any strike craft, and none of them had raised shields.

"Sir! New Contacts!" One of the crew members shouted from the sensors station. Anjek scanned the holo display and his eyes narrowed as he watched an entire fleet dropping into position behind the rag tag armada. These ships were marked as being clearly hostile. Blazing red as they exited hyperspace, their own micro-jump just as precise as that of the Imperial fleet in front of him, although unlike the other fleet, this was not made up of Imperial, or even New Republic vessels.

Anjek smiled slightly as he saw Hapan Battle Dragons and Hapes Nova Battle Cruisers forming up around the rear of the fleet. The smile vanished as his mind remembered that Hapan ships carried Pulse-Mass generator tubes, the equivalent of Interdictor cruisers in mine form. If those Hapan ships started launching, they really were trapped. But if the commander of this fleet was who Anjek thought he was, he didn't have much to fear. Absently, he straightened his white Grand Admiral's uniform and stood up from his command chair.

"Open a channel to the Imperial and Hapan fleets." He said, and his reply was the blip of the frequency being opened with all the speed that he expected of his crew.

"This is Grand Admiral Kurrs Anjek, Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, acting head of the Sentient Coalition's High Command...if the commander of this Imperial fleet is who I think it is...welcome back..._sir._" Anjek said, ignoring the quiet mutterings of the crewmembers and technicians in the room. Anjek was the supreme commander of the fleet, he didn't call anyone 'sir' not even Pellaeon, the military and civilan arms of the Empire were more distant these days...

There was no reply over the comm frequency for a few heartbeats. But then a low chuckle came over the open frequency, but no image appeared to hover in front of him, Anjek stood silent waiting.

"I am glad that I can return, Grand Admiral Anjek. This is Grand Admiral Thrawn, requesting permission to rejoin the Imperial Military." A voice said that was unmistakeable. The muttering stopped, dead. Every single member of the command crew was staring up at Anjek while he stood there, stiff as a statue, his back parade grown straight and at attention.

"Yes, sir." Anjek said, he felt cold and dizzy, but did not move an inch. On the tactical screen, both the Hapan and Imperial fleets began to fall into formation around the _Thrawn,_ forming a complete and very deadly fighting force.

"Permission to come aboard your ship, Grand Admiral Anjek?"

"Of course, sir." He said and the comm frequency cut off. Anjek sat down quickly. He felt as though all his strength had left him. From below him, the entire crew had broken into frantic muttering and chatter. Most of these crew members were to young to remember Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign in any detail, and the most complete stories they heard came from older veterains in the crew. Those old hands that spoke in hushed tones of the campaign that nearly crushed the rebellion, that drove back the rebels and almost ended the unplesantness of the civil war once and for all. For most of the younger crew members, Thrawn was a legend whose exploits were larger than the SSD _Thrawn_ itself, more myth and legend than accurate fact.

Always a handy thing.

"Captain Olera, stand down the fleet and prepare to recive visitors, full honor guard. Grand Admiral Thrawn has returned."

The secondary hangar bay aboard the _Thrawn_ was large enough to dock a pair of Corellian Corvettes simulaneously within it's cavernous expanses. White alloy walls and mirror polished deckplating combined to make the hanger feel disorientingly large. The solid ranks of Stormtroopers, Officers and Pilots standing at attention added to the effect...they seemed minute in the hangar bay. Normally this style of honor guard was intentded to awe and insipire a commander, but now it was to awe and inspire the troops. Rumor had spread like lightning through the ship after the exceptionally short communication between Thrawn and Anjek. And like all rumors, with each re-telling they grew and mutated into grander and grander falacies, each more outrageous and interesting than the last.

But the core of all these rumors was the truth, Thrawn was here.

Anjek stood at the center of this massive assemblage of troops looking ahead at the landing point that sat empty. Behind him were his group of hand picked bodyguards. The unplesantness on Filmar IV had shown him that no matter how trustworthy he believed his forces were, he could never be too safe. Which was why he had eight of the best soldiers he could find. Four Imperial Royal Guardsmen, each one a master of combat and a deadly fighter. Their loyalty to the Imperial cause was without question, and while normally they were tasked with guarding the Emperor, that role had long since fallen away. The new Royal Guard filled a security role in protecting political and key military leaders. Palleaon had his own detail, these four had been assigned to Anjek because he was simply too valuable to loose. Some said that these days Royal Guardsmen were more for show than they were combat capable soldiers. Anjek discounted that, he'd seen Royal Guadsmen training...they knew how to fight.

Along with these four were four other soldiers, NEXTGen Spartans. This detail had been granted to him by Commander -117 as a security measure following Filmar IV. Anjek had made his own personal selection of a team, even with the loyalty that Spartans had to the greater conflict in the Coalition/Covenant war there were still older loyalties that he could draw upon. Two of these Spartans were from Carida, former Stormtroopers. One was from Coruscant, technically New Republic, but her entire family was Imperial loyal. The fourth was a Yagai, a non-human species that was fanatically loyal to the Empire. This Spartan team was as loyal to him and the Empire as it was possible. Even if the Coalition was the greater good in this war, making sure that there were Supersoldiers with Imperial loyalties was a safety measure that couldn't be ignored. Especially with what had happened to the Federation and other factions at the hands of the SCPKF.

Anjek shuddered inwardly at that, Covenant infiltration of the highest levels of the Coalition government had been a shocking blow to morale. Everyone was looking over their shoulders these days.

He shook his head lightly and turned his attention to the landing pad. The gray armored form of a Lambda shuttle had passed through the mag-lock hangar shield and settled down on the cleared location. The thrum of repulsor lifts cut out and the immense chamber was silent. With a hiss the exit ramp lowered and touched the mirror shined deck without a sound. In crisp formation, two lines of Stormtroopers marched out, blaster carbines held to their chest plates. No...they weren't stormtroopers...

Their armor was burgundy, not white.

They marched with the precision of Stormtroopers, moved exactly like them in fact. The formed two four-man teams on either side of the ramp and waited. From behind them on the ramp, marched Grand Admiral Thrawn. He was wearing not the white uniform of an Imperial Grand Admiral, but rather a Burgundy colored uniform along the same cut.

In unison the assembled honor guard all saluted in unison. It was an insipring sight, every single solder and trooper saluting with the exact same precision and control. Even the Royal Guardsmen and the Spartans saluted.

Even Anjek joined in the simultanious salute.

Thrawn returned the salute and marched forward to Anjek.

"It's good to see you, Sir." Anjek said with a smile. Thrawn nodded.

"I hadn't hoped that I would be needed again so soon." Thrawn responded.

"It's an unfortunate situation sir." Anjek said, they turned and marched across the expanse of the Hangar bay to the turbolifts. Behind them the Royal Guard and the Spartans fell into formation, shadowing them.

"Sir, I would like to differ command of the Coalition Military to your capable hands" Anjek said. Thrawn nodded slowly.

"I think that we should discuss matters further in private Grand Admiral. Somewhere secure." Thrawn said.

"I see Grand Admiral." Anjek said, not asking the question that was burning within him.

"Go ahead Grand Admiral Anjek, ask." Thrawn said, his glowing red eyes boring into the skeletal Caridan. Anjek's skin seemed to go a shade paler at the statement, Thrawn hadn't been telepathic that he knew...

"Who are you?" Anjek asked, bluntly. Thrawn smiled and chuckled.

"Well, I am not the man who died on the bridge of the _Chimera_ at Bilbringi Grand Admiral." Thrawn said.

"Clearly." Anjek responded, his eyes narowed and his hand drifting towards his sidearm.

"If you wish, take a blood sample and examine my DNA, then a sample taken from the Thrawn during the Mount Tantiss campaign. You will find a signifigant difference between mine and his. But my DNA will be exactly the same as the sample kept with my service records." Thrawn said.

"Talk sense, now." Anjek snarled.

"The Mount Tantiss genetic information will contain markers that are consistent with a clone. Mine will not." Thrawn said.

"You mean to tell me that the Grand Admiral Thrawn that nearly crushed the rebellion...was a _clone_." Anjek said, breathless.

"Did you actually think that I wouldn't forsee the possiblity of the Noghri learning their heritage? That I'd risk myself on such a campaign? Defeating the Rebellion was a vital strategic goal, but my time in the Unknown Regions and my activities there were much more important than the civil war. I had to do both." Thrawn replied, his voice even.

"So...you sent a _clone?_" Anjek said, he felt weak.

"Yes. I had to." Thrawn replied as they walked. Anjek was speachless. The greatest strategist he had ever known...the greatest leader that the Empire had known, the man who had led them to the verge of victory had...had...just...been...a...clone...

And now the _origional_ was here. If there was a god, he'd just cast in his support for the Coalition.

"We need a plan Grand Admiral. We're losing this war, badly." Anjek said, they stood inside the turbolift, he'd directed it to take them to his private office, and half his guard had gone on ahead in another turbolift, for the moment they were alone.

"Yes, I've been reading reports that my inteligence group have hacked from your MILCOM transmissions. The New Republic is quite intent on holding onto Coruscant. That is taking away the style of war we hold an advantage in." Thrawn said.

"Yes, but the Coalition is very determined on holding onto that planet."

"Billions are dying every minute. I'd call that a mistake."

"Yes sir, it is." Anjek said with a sigh.

"These Conscript forces need to be removed from the equation, even if it were temporary, such a loss of manpower would give the Coalition a signifigant advantage." Thrawn said. The Turbolift arrived at the office and both stepped out.

The room was Spartan, a marked contrast to the normal opulance that many commanders indulged in when they recived power and prestige. The walls were simply armor plate, the only bits of decoration were a few still holos on the walls of important moments in Anjek's life and images of family. The newest one was a full family shot of the Anjeks and Complins, reunited after two decades fighting eachother in the civil war. There were nearly thrity in the picture, and a sharp mixture of Imperial and New Republic uniforms on every member. Anjek smiled looking at the image then sat down on one of the simple camp chairs behind the desk. Thrawn took one on the other side.

"How do you intend to do that, morale isn't an issue with them. They don't rout, they fight to the death. From what we can tell from the few captured prisoners they're compltely brainwashed, then pumped so full of neural inhibitor drugs on top of that they are blank slates to be commanded by Covenant officers." Anjek said.

"Yes, and in that, we do see a flaw, they need to recive orders. They all do. Their commanders are ineffective, they care more for honor than victory. Their grasp of strategic doctrine is flimsy at best, and they don't utilize their foces to maximum efficentcy. They could have taken a multitude of worlds with the forces they commited to Coruscant. Even the Yevethan fleet could have formed an impenetrable net around the Core and kept out reinforcement. And the shortening of their supply lines only took place recently, but the Yevethans have been on the Covenant side since the beginning." Thrawn said.

"We have had reason to believe that the Covenant has a new group of commanders at their disposal in addition to their Edenganer Paladins. Their Dark Lords. We haven't seen much activity from them, but the intel we've recived tells us that they are not a very nice group." Anjek said.

"Our advantage." Thrawn said.

"Sir?"

"I would wager that these Dark Lords were selected for their own...petty ambitions. Ambitions that make them effective at furthering their goals...but harm their ability to work together. No matter how good a group of commanders they are, they'll still fight themselves as much as they fight us." Thrawn said.

"I hope you're right sir, since we've been recieving snippets of information that one of these Dark Lords has been sent to Coruscant to break the siege and take command of the offensive. The word is that he has a pair of lieutenants that are exceptionally formidable. But we don't know who or what they are." Anjek replied.

Thrawn nodded slowly, contemplating the situation.

"Sir, I have to ask, the Hapan fleet...how did you..."

"Get their assistance?" Thrawn finished with a smile.

"Yes sir."

"I can be...very pursuasive." Thrawn said coldly. The Hapan fleet was large, combined with the Imperial fleet that he'd brought along, and the rag-tag collection around the _Thrawn_...

"I take it you're planning an offensive to force Covenant space assets out of Coruscant orbit? Open up the blockade entirely and take space superiority?"

"No. I plan to do something far more daring Grand Admiral, and you are going to command that action." Thrawn said.

"I am at your disposal Grand Admiral." Anjek said with a smile.

* * *

**Covenant Battleship _Divine Strength_,**

**High Orbit over Coruscant,**

**September, 2554 UST**

The Edenganer paladin guards stood behind him as he gazed at the immense holo-display of Coruscant hanging in front of him. The world was chopped into hundreds of different zones of control, ever shifting pockets of Covenant and Coalition forces. With the way the forces on the planet were deployed and the immense city surface, it was nearly impossible to tell who controled what. One level might be Covenant, the next above, Coalition. There was no clear-cut front lines, no easy idea of who was in command of what...it was a mess. The Paladin General Shantalllini had done as good a job as he could be expected to do, but now the master of command had arrived.

Dark Lord Sun Li, also known as the Glorious Strategist. He stood there in his black armor, silent. This master of warfare had been resurected by the Hegemony for his martial abilities, and now he'd been comissioned to turn the tide on the Coruscant Campaign. But the restriction had been that he had to take Coruscant intact.

"My lord." A voice said from behind Sun Li. He turned and saw that Shantalllini was standing there, head bowed, his red armor and cape appearing almost like blood. His hood covered his demonic looking face, but his eyes gleamed from deep within the shadows. His staff was clutched in one hand.

"Yes Shantalllini, I am glad you recived my summons." Sun Li said.

"What do you want, Dark Lord?" Shantalllini asked, the undertone of a snarl in his voice. The Edgenaner still had their problems with the Dark Lords, Voldemort's...lesson...hadn't translated to all of the Dark Lords as well as they had expected it too.

"You have commanded this campaign very well considering the limitations placed upon you by the Prophets. Irregardless of the outcome so far you are to be commended for your actions." Sun Li said, turning back to the globe. Shantalllini was taken off guard by the praise.

"What is it, Sun Li?" He asked again.

"The focus of this campaign needs to be increased. Right now the Coalition is gearing up for their own very immense counter offensive." Sun Li said.

"I was unaware that there had been any kind of military buildup. The Coalition has so far been feeding resources into the fight on this planet, and ships into orbit. I hadn't thought them willing to think out another strategy. They've been very...bullheaded about it."

"Yes...recent actions have made them much more concerned with affairs closer to their high command than battles. Our puppets did well, but we underestimated the independence of the New Republic and the Empire. We had not expected them to act independently of their leadership...a flaw in our judgement." Sun Li said.

"A pity, yes."

"I had not anticipated them to recover so...quickly. It wasn't enough, so that is why I have come here. Along with the other two." Sun Li said. Shantalllini nodded and thought about the other two that had come with Sun Li, the pair of commanders who had already gone down to the planet and taken charge of operations. That cyborg leader with the lightsabers...Greivous...and the other...that phantom. The Witch King...that horror...they both did excellent work, leading massive offensives. But now things had stabilized, neither commander leading assaults.

"They will come and try to force our supply lines Shantalllini. That cannot be allowed to happen. This army's advantage is in it's numbers, and if those supply lines are cut we will lose this battle." Sun Li said. Shantalllini watched the commander, none of this information was any great revelation to him. In fact it was all quite...simple. But all these Dark Lords underestimated the abilities of the Paladin...an advantage they'd grasped ahold of without hesitation, if they were so keen to think the Paladins mindless killing machines, let them.

"Yes, Dark Lord." Shantalllini said in monotone.

"But then of course, you know all these things." Sun Li said, turning to face the Paladin.

Shantalllini said nothing.

"You are no fool, and Ullt'Rittalamant made that mistake, as most of the Elites do. Your kind are cunning as well as deadly. I am not a fool, nor am I arrogant to think that you are without your own...ambitions." Sun Li said.

"I have but one ambition Dark Lord, service to the Covenant and protection of it's Children." Shantalllini said, and Sun Li smiled in response.

"Good, and I wish for it's strength. I do not think these things mutually exclusive, do you?" Sun Li said. If Shantalllini had been female, his head spines would have been wavering in shock, but since he had none, nothing betrayed his internal emotions. He was an expert at learning human body language, and from what he could tell, Sun Li was sincere. Which was unusual amongst the Dark Lords...

"No I do not..." Shantalllini said.

"I need your assistance and that of your people to win this war. This Coalition needs to be defeated, it is dangerously fractured. Such a force could fall apart at the slgihtest internal conflict of power."

"You are different from the others." Shantalllini said flatly. Sun Li gazed at the Paladin with a sharp eye.

"Yes...you might say that. I want a victory. I am willing to deal with external foes before I deal with those that rest closer to home. Unless I can do that, there is no point in fighting the evil that the Prophets have chosen to serve them." Sun Li said.

For the first time, Shantalllini felt a willingness to actually follow the commands of a Dark Lord. Voldemort's arrogant posturing and the other's rather...sordid histories had done nothing to endear them to the Paladins. But this Sun Li...his history was, unique...and his aspirations were for power, but power for the sake of stability, not power for the sake of power. This was something unique amongst the Dark Lords.

"A wise desicion, sir." Shantalllini said. The shift was subtle, but exceptional. The use of 'sir' was a dramatic leap away from the dismissive nature of the Paladins, now there was respect there.

"I hope that I can trust on your assistance in winning this war for the Covenant Hegemony." Sun Li said. Shantalllini merely nodded.

* * *

**Holy Terra, Imperial Palace,**

**Grand Audiance Chamber,**

**September, 2554 UST**

The room was massive. The vaulted ceilings stretching high above the seated High Lords. Massive tower like columns surrounded the main floor, adorned with carvings of saints and heroes. Immense tapestries hung on the walls, hundreds of feet high. The High Lords sat around a large table, one end empty facing the God-Emperor gazing out a gargantuan window that looked out across Terra.The God-Emperor stood silent before the assembled High Lords. Each of them were shocked into abject silence by the figure that stood there. The God-Emperor's vestments were simple in comparison to the elaborate and flamboyant affairs that the High Lords wore to broadcast their own station. The God-Emperor needed none of this, he merely wore simple golden robes. The Dark Angel Cypher stood behind him, silent guardian as much as the Adeptus Custodes that stood silent vigil over their reborn god. The silence of the chamber was opressive, but none of the High Lords dared speak even if they had the capacity. The God-Emperor had summoned all of them in the middle of the night, forceably for some since the prospect of a reborn Emperor was impossible in their eyes.

"For ten thousand years you and your forebears have ruled in my stead. In those ten thousand years, heretics, mutants and xenos have run rampant through the empire that I have built. The Dark Crusade of Abbadon the Despoiler has wreaked havok on Cadia...Tyranids, Tau and the foul Ork have caused no end of trouble throughout the Empire. My primarchs have been slain..." The God-Emperor said, his voice filled with regal fury.

None of the High Lords dared raise a voice in their defense.

"I feel that your services...though diligent, have been ineffective. I shall not tolerate any further...ineffective actions." The God-Emperor said and he turned to face them.

"I have some very..._very_ simple instructions for you all."

None responded, they leaned forward, anxious.

"Firstly, I want the technology that was recovered by the raid on this...USS facility, to be examined and _duplicated_. The Machine spirits must be copied, we cannot fight these enemies, these hertics without a better understanding of their weapons. These xeno loving fools must be defeated. Secondly, I want the Imperial Guard to begin conscription and drafting of large numbers. A larger effort must be made to contune with the stabilization of our territory. The Inquisition's duties are to focus on routing out Heresy and the taint of Chaos, of course...but you are to avoid wholesale destruction of worlds if at all possible." The God-Emperor said.

The High Lords said nothing.

"This USS, and Sentient Coalition shall be crushed, and Humanity will be brought back into the divine light of my rule, in this galaxy and all galaxies. I shall have more orders for you...later...now go I have further buisness." The God-Emperor said. He gestured with one hand and they left quickly, practically fighting to be out of the presence of their displeased God. No one wanted to incur the wrath of the God Emperor. After the High Lords had left, the next visitor was shown into the chamber.

Lady Inquisitor Jena Orchiel was led into the chamber by a pair of Adeptus Custodes. The Inquisitor was reverent, but there was a smile on her face as she knelt down out of respect for the God-Emperor. He slowly turned and gazed upon the Inquisitor, saying nothing. From beside the God-Emperor Cypher stood silent, not saying anything to the benefactor who had given him the strange nano-machines and information, and the mission to resurect the God-Emperor. The Dark Angel had said nothing to the God-Emperor about where he had recived the technology that he had used...but no words had been nessicary...you could not decive a God.

"I owe you great thanks Inquisitor...even if your methods were slightly...unorthodox." The God-Emperor said, flexing one hand without thought.

"I am...sorry for that my Lord. But what needed to be done, needed to be done." Lady Orchiel said.

"Yes...I cannot argue with the results Lady Inquisitor. My presence was needed once again, irregardless of the lesser problems that have arisen." The God-Empror said.

"It was a monumental task my Lord, the Xeno technologies that needed to be understood were difficult to decipher, and the library on Hydra Cordatus was well hidden...but the treasures that it contained were monumental in their value." Lady Orchiel said. Behind her, a procession of figures entered, each wearing hodded robes. Orchiel stepped to one side as the line walked up and stood in silence.

In unison, they removed their hoods and revealed themselves to the God-Emperor. The Loyalist Primarchs, all of them. Their heads bowed before their God and master. And even the God-Emperor had no words that could properly suit the moment. He merely walked down the line, silently standing before each of the space marine primarchs placing a hand on their shoulder and nodding to them, a minute smile crossing his lips. None of them spoke, merely nodding in response, no words could fill the moment properly...

The God-Emperor walked back to the window and gazed out it into the glowing horizon, the coming dawn that had yet to arrive.

"I believe that the Age of Restoration has begun Lady Inquisitor...you have my thanks, and the debt of all humanity." The God-Emperor said.

And it truly had come, a new age, a time of hope.

* * *

And Chappie...

Up next,

Chapter 15: World of Blood


End file.
